Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELIt is dangerous to take human freedom for granted, to regard it as a prerogative rather than as an obligation, as an ultimate fact rather than as an ultimate goal.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
-
-
Prayer begins where our power ends.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Instead of indulging in jealousy, greed, in relishing themselves, there are men who keep their hearts alert to the stillness in which time rolls on and leaves us behind.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Proximity to the crowd, to the majority view, spells the death of creativity. For a soul can create only when alone, and some are chosen for the flowering that takes place in the dark avenues of night.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
The awe of God is wisdom.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Solitude is a necessary protest to the incursions and the false alarms of society’s hysteria, a period of cure and recovery.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
It’s silence remains unbroken; no words can carry it away. Sometimes we wish the world could cry and tell us about that which made it pregnant with fear–filling grandeur.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Then comes the insight that All is God. One still realizes that the world is as it was, but it does not matter, it does not affect one’s faith.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Only in His presence shall we learn that the glory of humankind is not in its will to power but in its power of compassion.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
We can all do our share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and all frustrations and all disappointments.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
The essence of man is not what he is, but in what he is able to be.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Wonder, or radical amazement, is a way of going beyond what is given in thing and thought, refusing to take anything for granted, to regard anything as final.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Self-respect is the root of discipline
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
To sense a ray of God’s radiance in the jungles of history.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
We forfeit the right to worship God as long as we continue to humiliate negroes. … The hour calls for moral grandeur and spiritual audacity.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
The mystics, knowing that man is involved in a hidden history of the cosmos, endeavor to awake from the drowsiness and apathy and to regain the state of wakefulness for their enchanted souls.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
When I see an act of evil I don’t accomodate, I don’t accomodate myself to the violence that goes on everywhere.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
We worship God through our questions.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
God is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
To be spiritual is to be amazed.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Our age is one in which usefulness is thought to be the chief merit of nature; in which the attainment of power
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
There are no two hours alike. Every hour is unique and the only one given at the moment, exclusive and endlessly precious.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Life is not meaningful…unle ss it is serving an end beyond itself; unless it is of value to someone else.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL