Paul Tillich: “The courage to be is…”

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to The Courage to Be (1952) and files it under Religious Existentialism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Paul Tillich

Paul Tillich (1886–1965) was a German-American Protestant theologian and philosopher of religion who fled Nazism for Union Seminary, Harvard, and Chicago. The Courage to Be and Systematic Theology correlatively linked existential questions to Christian symbols.

Interpretation

Tillich's formulation is deliberately paradoxical. Acceptance, on his account, cannot be earned by becoming acceptable, since the anxiety he is addressing is precisely the awareness of failing to qualify. So the acceptance he describes must come from outside the self's own judgement — which is why he frames it as being accepted in spite of being unacceptable. The claim is about the structure of self-acceptance rather than a recommendation of self-esteem.

Why it matters

It addresses a specific failure: the person who cannot accept themselves because they are measuring by a standard they know they have failed.

Concepts in this quote

Courage: Courage is the virtue of facing fear without abandoning judgment—central to ethics from Aristotle to modern existential resolve.
Self: Philosophy quotes about self explore identity, responsibility, and the examined life—from Socrates’ unexamined life to modern phenomenology and existential authenticity.
Being: Being appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat being as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Paul Tillich. (n.d.). The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself as accepted in spite of being unacceptable. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0218

MLA: Paul Tillich. “The courage to be is the courage to….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0218.

Chicago: Paul Tillich. “The courage to be is the courage to….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0218.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “The courage to be is the courage to…”?

The passage is attributed to Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be (1952). The archive attributes this English wording to The Courage to Be (1952) and files it under Religious Existentialism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Paul Tillich mean by courage?

Philosophers ask whether courage is fearlessness or right action amid fear, and how it relates to recklessness, endurance, and moral courage in public life. This passage enters that discussion through courage, self, being.