Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city; but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL
People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city; but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
The task of life is to face sacred moments.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
In the second way he sees in what surrounds him things to be acknowledged, understood, valued or admired.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
It 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.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Self-respect is the fruit of discipline.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself. It is a silent justification affording evil acceptability in society.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Audacious longing, burning songs, daring thoughts, an impulse overwhelming the heart, usurping the mind–these are all a drive towards serving Him who rings our hearts like a bell.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
I have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised, surprised at life, at ideas. This is to me the supreme Hasidic imperative: Don’t be old. Don’t be stale.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Being is transcended by a concern for being. Our perplexity will not be solved by relating human existence to a timeless, subpersonal abstraction which we call essence.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
I am still so surprised! That is why I am against it. We must learn to be surprised.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind.
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 -
Man is naturally self-centered and he is inclined to regard expediency as the supreme standard for what is right and wrong.
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Human being is both being in the world and living in the world. Living involves responsible understanding of one’s role in relation to all other beings.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL