Martin Buber Quotes

Life is short. People are not easy to know. They're not easy to know, so if you don't tell them how you feel, you're not going to get anywhere, I feel.

Working with different people anyway is like life and meeting different people... as long as you can be empathetic, you can take a bit of them on and see what you can do to help their process. That said, my relationship with Woody Allen was trying to hang on his every word so that I could tell everybody what he said afterwards. But certainly, he was a very good example of somebody who you didn't hear talk above a very low volume for the entire time he was on-set.

Nine times out of ten, when you extend your arms to someone, they will step in, because basically they need precisely what you need.

A willingness to drop your ego and let yourself look foolish. You almost have to enjoy looking vulnerable. You'd be surprised how many people don't want to do that.

I've never been interested in things that sparkle and shine; I'm more interested in people.

I like, though, that people have a hunger to connect with other people. They're desperate to know that you're not lying to them or misleading them.

I love human beings. I believe that there is so much to learn from every person you meet, including a child.

I'm a lot more interested in people than I used to be. I used to be most interested in abstract ideas, and people were an afterthought, but that's changed a bit.

I also have a different, softer side, and I want for people to hear that.

If we dare to come closer to our fellow human beings, we will be able to see and understand them better.

The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human.

I actually really love people.

I love to learn about people.

I had to learn to be more open with people and to know how to show that I was interested in them.

Honesty and vulnerability endear us to people; they don't endanger us in our relationship.

When we love and respect people, revealing to them their value, they can begin to come out from behind the walls that protect them.

People ask me what my greatest strengths are and I say perspective. The best way to get that is to meet people that are polar opposites; you learn the most from them. There are pieces of you that are inherently yours, but everything else is a collection of the things you’ve seen and the people you’ve met.

I think closing-off is the most detrimental thing we can do as people. Also, the idea of not judging oneself.

When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition.

I love being free enough that I can be so intimate with people, and that people are free enough that we can all be intimate with each other!

I think to be honest, that being is inside. I meet that being in so many people that I meet everywhere in the world and when I do meet that being, in other people, what I want to ask is "How do we keep opening ourselves so that we can become as vulnerable and as willing to live in the deepest complexity and ambiguity and truth that we can?

I learned so much from listening to people. And all I knew was, the only thing I had was honesty and openness.

I am naive enough to read incessantly because I cannot, on my own, get to know enough people profoundly enough.

It is important to tell our secrets too because ... it makes it easier for other people to tell us a secret or two of their own, and exchanges like that have a lot to do with what being a family is all about and what being human is all about.

When I was young I asked more of people than they could give: everlasting friendship, endless feeling. Now I know to ask less of them than they can give: a straightforward companionship. And their feelings, their friendship, their generous actions seem in my eyes to be wholly miraculous: a consequence of grace alone.