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.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELIn our daily lives we attend primarily to that which the senses are spelling out for us: to what the eyes perceive, to what the fingers touch.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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One of the major symptoms of the general crisis existent in our world today is our lack of sensitivity to words.
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Life without commitment is not worth living.
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In the second way he sees in what surrounds him things to be acknowledged, understood, valued or admired.
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Awe is a sense for transcendence, for the reference everywhere to mystery beyond all things. It enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine.
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Remember that there is meaning beyond absurdity. Know that every deed counts, that every word is power…Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art.
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The mystics, knowing that man is involved in a hidden history of the cosmos, endeavor to awake from the drowsiness and apathy and to regain the state of wakefulness for their enchanted souls.
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Wonder, or radical amazement, is a way of going beyond what is given in thing and thought, refusing to take anything for granted, to regard anything as final.
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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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Philosophy, to be relevant, must offer us a wisdom to live by.
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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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Faith is an awareness of divine mutuality and companionship, a form of communion between God and man.
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The awe of God is wisdom.
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The worship of reason is arrogance and betrays a lack of intelligence. The rejection of reason is cowardice and betrays a lack of faith.
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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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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;
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL