Quotes about Authenticity

God does not love some ideal person, but rather human beings just as we are, not some ideal world, but rather the real world.

Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of the church.

The desire we so often hear expressed today for "episcopal figures," "priestly men," "authoritative personalities" springs frequently enough from a spiritually sick need for the admiration of men, for the establishment of visible human authority, because the genuine authority of service appears to be so unimpressive.

In particular, our church will have to confront the vices of hubris, the worship of power, envy, and illusionism as the roots of all evil. It will have to speak of moderation, authenticity, trust, faithfulness, steadfastness, patience, discipline, humility, modesty, contentment.

Genuine love is always self-forgetful in the true sense of the word.

I think that even in this place we ought to live as if we had no wishes and no future, and just be our true selves.

There is no truth towards Jesus without truth towards man. Untruthfulness destroys fellowship, but truth cuts false fellowship to pieces and establishes genuine brotherhood.

He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.

Who comes to the light? "Those who do what is true" (John 3:21)! What does this mean? Truth is supposed to happen; it is not only to be thought or willed, but to be done. Truth arises through action that is the opposite of pretense and darkness, which give rise to evil.

WHO AM I?2 Who am I? They often tell me I stepped from my cell's confinement calmly, cheerfully, firmly, like a Squire from his country house.

That the lie portrays the truth as lie is the ultimate possible rebellion. It is the abyss of the lie that it lives because it sets itself up as truth and condemns the truth as lie.

Love is not concerned with a person's accomplishments, it is a response to a person's being: This is why a typical word of love is to say: I love you, because you are as you are.