HomeQuotesDietrich Bonhoeffer
Literature and scripture
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
Literature and scripture
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What this means, and why it matters to a father

Bonhoeffer wrote this from Tegel Prison in 1943 in a short essay called 'Are We Still of Any Use?' — a question he and his friends in the German resistance were asking themselves. They had watched a generation of brilliant, educated, capable men bend their intelligence toward catastrophe.

There is more to this one. The full context — the events behind the words, what the author was living through, and how it applies to the specific situations of fatherhood — is in the app under Deeper Understanding.

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Related themes

integrityidentityresponsibilitywisdom

The right words for exactly where you are right now.

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