Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.

The line links decision-making to existential freedom: to decide is not merely to choose among options but to accept responsibility without the shelter of certainty. “Risk” suggests that genuine decisions cannot be fully secured by rules, authorities, or guarantees; they expose the self to error, loss, and guilt. By rooting decision in “the courage of being free,” the quote echoes Tillich’s broader theme that courage is the self-affirmation of one’s being in the face of anxiety—here, the anxiety that freedom brings (because freedom entails accountability and the possibility of failure). The significance is ethical and spiritual: authentic life requires embracing freedom’s risks rather than evading them through conformity or fatalism.