Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal in time.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELReligion has become an impersonal affair, an institutional loyalty. It survives on the level of activities rather than in the stillness of commitment.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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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.
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A prophet’s true greatness is his ability to hold God and man in a single thought.
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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.
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The awe of God is wisdom.
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Sometimes there seems to be a greater separation between the church and God than between the church and state.
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The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God.
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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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Proximity to the crowd, to the majority view, spells the death of creativity. For a soul can create only when alone, and some are chosen for the flowering that takes place in the dark avenues of night.
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There is a built-in sense of indebtedness in the consciousness of man, an awareness of owing gratitude, or being caled upon at certain moments to reciprocate
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Reality to us is thinghood , consisting of substances that occupy space; even God is conceived by most of us as a thing.
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Mundus vult decipi’—the world wants to be deceived.
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There is no specialized art of prayer. All of life must be a training to pray. We pray the way we live.
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Pagans exalt sacred things, the Prophets extol sacred deeds.
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That man can never transcend his own self. The most fatal trap into which thinking may fall is the equation of existence and expediency.
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There are no two hours alike. Every hour is unique and the only one given at the moment, exclusive and endlessly precious.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL