We cannot approach the spirit unless we repair the vessels. Reverence for words – an awareness of the wonder of words, of the mystery of words – is an essential prerequisite for prayer.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELAudacious 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.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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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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Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
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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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Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.
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There is a war to wage against the vulgar, the glorification of the absurd, a war that is incessant, universal.
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As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind.
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You must build your life as if it were a work of art.
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Society today is no longer in revolt against particular laws which it finds alien, unjust, and imposed, but against law as such, against the principle of law.
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Awe enables us to see in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance
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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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Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of your universe.
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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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Man has indeed become primarily a tool-making animal, and the world is now a gigantic tool box for the satisfaction of his needs.
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Self-respect is the fruit of discipline.
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The essence of man is not what he is, but in what he is able to be.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL