We use words as tools. We forget that words are a repository of the spirit. The tragedy of our times is that the vessels of the spirit are broken.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELTo be is to stand for.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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When religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.
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The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time.
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feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal
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Prayer may not save us. But prayer may make us worthy of being saved.
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Faith is an awareness of divine mutuality and companionship, a form of communion between God and man.
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Wise criticism always begins with self-criticism.
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Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism, falsehoods.
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Friendship, a puzzle to the syllogistic and critical mentality, is not based on experiments or tests of another person’s qualities but on trust.
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I am commanded therefore I am.
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As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind.
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The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living.
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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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The time for the kingdom may be far off, but the task is plain: to retain our share in God in spite of peril and contempt.
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There are two primary ways in which mans relates himself to the world that surround him: manipulation and appreciation .
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There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord.
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People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained.
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When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
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The awe of God is wisdom.
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Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.
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The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God.
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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.
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We cannot approach the spirit unless we repair the vessels. Reverence for words – an awareness of the wonder of words, of the mystery of words – is an essential prerequisite for prayer.
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What we cannot comprehend by analysis, we become aware of in awe.
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Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.
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Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.
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Knowledge-like the sky- is never private property. No teacher has a right to withhold it from anyone who asks for it. Teaching is the art of sharing.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL