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 HESCHELEverything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.
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To abstain completely from all enjoyments may be easy. Yet to enjoy life and retain spiritual integrity – there is the challenge.
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Wise criticism always begins with self-criticism.
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People are anxious to save up financial means for old age; they should also be anxious to prepare a spiritual means for old age….
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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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(People achieve) fullness of being in fellowship, in care for others.
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This is one of the goals of the Jewish way of living: to experience commonplace deeds as spiritual adventures, to feel the hidden love and wisdom in all things.
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To us injustice is injurious to the welfare of the people; to the prophets it is a deathblow to existence: to us, an episode; to them, a catastrophe, a threat to the world.
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All action is vicarious faith.
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Every little deed counts.
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There is a war to wage against the vulgar, the glorification of the absurd, a war that is incessant, universal.
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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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To sing means to sense and to affirm that the spirit is real and that its glory is present.
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The test of love is in how one relates not to saints and scholars but to rascals.
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What is meant, however, is a higher category than being: the power of maintaining being.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL