Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal in time.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELIndeed, the sort of crimes and even the amount of delinquency that fill the prophets of Israel with dismay do not go beyond that which we regard as normal, as typical ingredients of social dynamics.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves.
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Wisdom, maturity, tranquility do not come all of a sudden when we retire.
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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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Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme.
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Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.
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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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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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To become aware of the ineffable is to part company with words.
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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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Is not self-sufficiency itself insufficient to explain self-sufficiency?
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God is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake.
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The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living.
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It is not critical knowledge but a risk of the heart which initiates affection and preserves loyalty in our fellow men.
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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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A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL