Philosophy, to be relevant, must offer us a wisdom to live by.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELPrayer 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.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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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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It is not a psychical quality, something that exists in the mind only, but a force from the beyond.
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The idea of dependence is an explanation, whereas self-sufficiency is an unprecedented, nonanalogous concept in terms of what we know about life within nature.
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In the darkest night to be certain of the dawn…to go through Hell and to continue to trust in the goodness of God-this is the challenge and the way.
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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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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.
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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.
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There is happiness in the love of labor, there is misery in the love of gain.
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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.
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The awe of God is wisdom.
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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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Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
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Mundus vult decipi’—the world wants to be deceived.
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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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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.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL






