It is dangerous to take human freedom for granted, to regard it as a prerogative rather than as an obligation, as an ultimate fact rather than as an ultimate goal.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELProximity 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.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
-
-
It is the beginning of wisdom to be amazed at the fact of our being free.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Ultimately there is no power to narcissistic, self-indulgent thinking. Authentic thinking originates with an encounter with the world.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
All action is vicarious faith.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Man is naturally self-centered and he is inclined to regard expediency as the supreme standard for what is right and wrong.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
To sense the ultimate in the common and the simple: to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose is to praise, to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a song.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
In prayer we shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
The essence of man is not what he is, but in what he is able to be.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
It is of the essence of virtue that the good is not to be done for the sake of a reward.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Our age is one in which usefulness is thought to be the chief merit of nature; in which the attainment of power
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
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.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn, or scoff at the totality of being.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL -
Racism is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL