“We find the most terrible form of atheism, not in the militant and passionate struggle against the idea of God himself, but in the practical atheism of everyday living, in indifference and torpor. We often encounter these forms of atheism among those who are formally Christians.” IdeasChristianFormStruggleAtheismTerribleEverydayAtheistPassionatePracticalsIndifferenceEncountersMilitantEveryday Living Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“Our attitude towards evil must be freed from hatred, and has itself need to be enlightened in character...Satan rejoices when he succeeds in inspiring us with diabolical feelings to himself. It is he who wins when his own methods are used against himself...A continual denunciation of evil and its agents merely encourages its growth in the world a truth sufficiently revealed in the Gospels, but to which we are persistently blind.” WorldNeedsCharacterFeelingsSpiritualUsedEvilWinningGrowthAttitudeSucceedHatredMethodBlindAgentsSatanEnlightenedRejoiceDiabolical Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“The creation of the world is not only a process which moves from God to humanity. God demands newness from humanity; God awaits the works of human freedom.” WorldHumansSpiritualMovingHumanityProcessCreationDemandNewnessHuman FreedomCreation Of The World Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“The central idea of the Eastern Fathers was that of theosis, the divinization of all creatures, the transfiguration of the world, the idea of the cosmos and not the idea of personal salvation...Only later Christian consciousness began to value the idea of hell more than the idea of the transfiguration and divinization of the world...The Kingdom of God is the transfiguration of the world, the universal resurrection, a new heaven and a new earth.” WorldIdeasEarthChristianSpiritualValuesFatherHeavenConsciousnessHellCreaturesUniversalSalvationKingdomsCosmosResurrectionEasternKingdom Of GodNew EarthTransfiguration Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“So great is the worth of Dostoevsky that to have produced him is by itself sufficient justification for the existence of the Russian people in the world: and he will bear witness for his country-men at the last judgement of the nations.” PeopleMenWorldCountryLastsNationsExistenceBearsWitnessJudgementSufficientJustificationSelf Sufficient Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“God is a reality of spirit He cannot be conceived as an object, not even as the very highest object. God is not to be found in the world of objects.” WorldRealitySpiritFoundObjectsHighest Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“Victory over fear is the first spiritual duty of man.” MenFirstsSpiritualDutyVictory Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“The meaning of conservatism is not that it impedes movement forward and upward, but that it impedes movement backwards and downwards—to chaotic darkness and the return to a primitive state.” StatesDarknessMovementReturnPrimitiveBackwardsConservatismChaotic Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“The World is not an idea as asserted by philosophers who have dedicated their entire lives to the exploration of ideas. First and foremost the world is passion. But passion is associated with sadness. Sadness does not only arise from death which makes us face the Eternity, but also from life which causes us to confront the Time.” WorldFirstsDoeIdeasFacesPassionCausesSadnessEternityPhilosopherAriseExplorationDedicated Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“Utopias now appear much more realizable than one used to think. We are now faced with a different new worry: How to prevent their realization.” ThinkingDifferentUsedWorryLibertarianRealizationUtopia Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“Freedom is the power to create out of nothing, the power of the spirit to create out of itself.” SpiritFreedom Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“The physical union of the sexes ... only intensifies man's sense of solitude.” MenSexSolitudeUnions Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“Every moral act of love, of mercy, and of sacrifice brings to pass the end of the world where hatred, cruelty, and selfishness reign supreme.” WorldEndsActionMoralSacrificeHatredMercySupremeCrueltySelfishnessReignEnd Of The WorldActs Of Love Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“I never remain passive in the process of reading: while I read I am engaged in a constant creative activity, which leads me to remember not so much the actual matter of the book as the thoughts evoked in my mind by it, directly or indirectly.” MindBookMatterRememberReadingProcessCreativeActivityConstantEngagedPassiveLeading Me Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“In sex we have the source of man's true connection with the cosmos and of his servile dependence. The categories of sex, male and female, are cosmic categories, not merely anthropological categories.” MenSexSourceFemaleConnectionsMalesCosmosCategoriesCosmicDependence Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“The Russian yearning for the meaning of life is the major theme of our literature, and this is the real point of our intelligentsia's existence.” RealLife IsLiteratureExistenceMajorsMeaning Of LifeThemeYearningRussian Literature Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
