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Dietrich Bonhoeffer on fatherhood, character, and how to live

6 sourced quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, each with the original work, the year, and links to a primary or scholarly source you can check yourself. Selected for what they say to a man raising children.

“There remains an experience of incomparable value. We have for once learned to see the great events of world history from below, from the…”
Letters and Papers from Prison, "After Ten Years", 1943
“What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, straightforward men.”
Letters and Papers from Prison, "Are We Still of Any Use?", 1943
“Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready…”
Letters and Papers from Prison, "Who Stands Fast?", 1943
“He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal…”
Life Together, chapter 1 ("Community"), 1939
“He who is bearing others knows that he himself is being borne, and only in this strength can he go on bearing.”
Life Together, chapter 4 ("The Ministry of Bearing"), 1939
“The Christian, however, must bear the burden of a brother. He must suffer and endure the brother... It is only when he is a burden that another…”
Life Together, chapter 4 ("The Ministry of Bearing"), 1939

The right words for exactly where you are right now.

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Works quoted here: Letters and Papers from Prison, "After Ten Years", Letters and Papers from Prison, "Are We Still of Any Use?", Letters and Papers from Prison, "Who Stands Fast?", Life Together, chapter 1 ("Community"), Life Together, chapter 4 ("The Ministry of Bearing").