Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELOnly those will apprehend religion who can probe its depth, who can combine intuition and love with the rigor of method
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.
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Much of what the Bible demands can be comprised in one imperative: Remember!
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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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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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When religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.
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The course of life is unpredictable no one can write his autobiography in advance.
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Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of your universe.
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Man’s sin is in his failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that he is the servant of God.
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Wise criticism always begins with self-criticism.
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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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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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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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People are anxious to save up financial means for old age; they should also be anxious to prepare a spiritual means for old age….
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To sense the ultimate in the common and the simple: to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.
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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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(People achieve) fullness of being in fellowship, in care for others.
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It’s silence remains unbroken; no words can carry it away. Sometimes we wish the world could cry and tell us about that which made it pregnant with fear–filling grandeur.
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The problem to be faced is: how to combine loyalty to one’s own tradition with reverence for different traditions.
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Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions. Source: The Wisdom of Heschel
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The opposite of good is not evil, the opposite of good is indifference.
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The self is not the hub but the spoke of the revolving wheel. It is precisely the function of prayer to shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender.
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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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We can do justice to human being only by relating it to the transcendent care for being.
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Instead of indulging in jealousy, greed, in relishing themselves, there are men who keep their hearts alert to the stillness in which time rolls on and leaves us behind.
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God is everywhere or nowhere, the father of all people or of none, concerned about everything or nothing.
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Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself. It is a silent justification affording evil acceptability in society.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL