“There is absolute truth in anarchism and it is to be seen in its attitude to the sovereignty of the state and to every form of state absolutism. [...] The religious truth of anarchism consists in this, that power over man is bound up with sin and evil, that a state of perfection is a state where there is no power of man over man, that is to say, anarchy. The Kingdom of God is freedom and the absence of such power... the Kingdom of God is anarchy.” MenStatesFormEvilReligiousSinAttitudePerfectionAbsolutesBoundsAbsenceKingdomsAnarchySovereigntyKingdom Of GodAnarchismAbsolute TruthAbsolutismReligious Truth Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“Conscience is the spiritual, supernatural principle in man, and it is not of social origin at all. It is rather the perversion and confusion of conscience that is of social origin.” MenSpiritualSocialPrinciplesConscienceConfusionPerversion Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“The uniting of Orthodoxy with state absolutism came about on the soil of a non-belief in the Divineness of the earth, in the earthly future of mankind; Orthodoxy gave away the earth into the hands of the state because of its own non-belief in man and mankind, because of its nihilistic attitude towards the world. Orthodoxy does not believe in the religious ordering of human life upon the earth, and it compensates for its own hopeless pessimism by a call for the forceful ordering of it by state authority.” MenWorldBelieveHumansDoeStatesHandsEarthBeliefReligiousAttitudeMankindAuthorityHuman LifeSoilHopelessPessimismOrthodoxyUnitingAbsolutismFuture Of Mankind Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“Creativeness is liberation from slavery. Man is free when he finds himself in a state of creative activity. Creativeness leads to ecstasy of the moment. The products of creativeness are within time, but the creative act itself lies outside time.” MenStatesMomentsLyingCreativeProductsActivitySlaveryLiberationEcstasyCreativeness Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“But man as a person, the same man, gains mastery over egocentric self-confinement by disclosing a universe in himself...Personality is a universe, it is filled with universal content.” MenPersonsSelfUniversePersonalityGainsUniversalFilledMasteryEgocentricConfinement Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“Self-realization is a process of permanent auto-creation, an elaboration of the new man at the expense of the old.” MenSelfProcessCreationSelf RealizationRealizationPermanentExpenses Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“The essential in artistic creativity is victory over the burden of necessity. In art, man lives outside himself, outside his burdens, the burdens of life. Every creative artistic act is a partial transfiguration of life. In the artistic concept man breaks out through the heaviness of the world. In the creative-artistic attitude towards this world we catch a glimpse of another world.” MenWorldArtAttitudeBreakCreativityCreativeThis WorldVictoryEssentialsConceptsBurdenArtisticGlimpseAnother WorldBreak OutCreative ArtHeavinessTransfigurationArtistic CreativityBurdens Of Life Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“...in the third epoch the divinity of man's creative nature is finally revealed and divine power becomes human power.” MenHumansCreativeDivineThirdsDivinityEpochDivine PowerHuman Power Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“It is imperative to bear in mind that human creativity is not a claim or a right on the part of man, but God's claim on and call to man. God awaits man's creative act, which is the response to the creative act of God.” MenMindHumansCreativityCreativeBearsClaimsResponseImperatives 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
“Victory over fear is the first spiritual duty of man.” MenFirstsSpiritualDutyVictory Author:Nikolai Berdyaev
“The physical union of the sexes ... only intensifies man's sense of solitude.” MenSexSolitudeUnions 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
