To sing means to sense and to affirm that the spirit is real and that its glory is present.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELThe awe of God is wisdom.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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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.
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It is of the essence of virtue that the good is not to be done for the sake of a reward.
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to become aware of the ineffable is to part company with words…the tangent to the curve of human experience lies beyond the limits of language.
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Philosophy, to be relevant, must offer us a wisdom to live by.
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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.
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Only those will apprehend religion who can probe its depth, who can combine intuition and love with the rigor of method
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To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments.
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(People achieve) fullness of being in fellowship, in care for others.
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Our concern is not how to worship in the catacombs but how to remain human in the skyscrapers.
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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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Life is not meaningful…unle ss it is serving an end beyond itself; unless it is of value to someone else.
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At all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.
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Sometimes we wish our own heart would speak of that which made it heavy with wonder.
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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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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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Loyal to the presence of the ultimate in the common, we may be able to make it clear that man is more than man, that in doing the finite he may perceive the infinite .
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Prayer begins where our power ends.
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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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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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Is not self-sufficiency itself insufficient to explain self-sufficiency?
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However, we must not convert an inclination into an axiom that just as man’s perceptions cannot operate outside time and space, so his motivations cannot operate outside expediency;
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Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.
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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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But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture.
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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.
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Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL