We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELFriendship, a puzzle to the syllogistic and critical mentality, is not based on experiments or tests of another person’s qualities but on trust.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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The tragedy of religion is partly due to its isolation from life, as if God could be segregated.
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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.
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It is not enough for me to ask question; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?
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To us a single act of injustice–cheating in business, exploitation of the poor–is slight; to the prophets, a disaster.
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He who is satisfied has never truly craved, and he who craves for the light of God neglects his ease for ardor.
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When faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.
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Society today is no longer in revolt against particular laws which it finds alien, unjust, and imposed, but against law as such, against the principle of law.
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Man’s sin is in his failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that he is the servant of God.
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Life without commitment is not worth living.
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The answers are questions in disguise, every new answer giving rise to new questions.
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We can do justice to human being only by relating it to the transcendent care for being.
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Ultimately there is no power to narcissistic, self-indulgent thinking. Authentic thinking originates with an encounter with the world.
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In prayer we shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender
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A prophet’s true greatness is his ability to hold God and man in a single thought.
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Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness.
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The task of life is to face sacred moments.
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To answer, to live in a way which is compatible with the grandeur and mystery of living.
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Being points beyond itself. Accustomed to think in terms of space, the expression “being points beyond itself” may be taken to denote a higher point in space.
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We may not know whether our understanding is correct, or whether our sentiments are noble, but the air of the day surrounds us like spring which spreads over the land without our aid or notice.
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We must first peer into the darkness, feel strangled and entombed in the hopelessness of living without God, before we are ready to feel the presence of His living light.
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Wonder or radical amazement is the chief characteristic of the religious man’s attitude toward history and nature.
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Man is a messenger who forgot the message.
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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.
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This may be the vocation of man: to say “Amen” to being and to the Author of being; to live in defiance of absurdity, notwithstanding futility and defeat; to attain faith in God even in spite of God.
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Forfeit your sense of awe, let your conceit diminish your ability to revere, and the universe becomes a market place for you.
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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