I have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised, surprised at life, at ideas. This is to me the supreme Hasidic imperative: Don’t be old. Don’t be stale.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELWise criticism always begins with self-criticism.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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To become aware of the ineffable is to part company with words.
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Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me.
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We worry a great deal about the problem of church and state. Now what about the church and God?
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Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness.
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The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time.
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All that is left is to us is our being horrified at the loss of our sense of horror.
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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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There is a war to wage against the vulgar, the glorification of the absurd, a war that is incessant, universal.
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Awareness of the divine begins with wonder.
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Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.
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In the first way he sees in what surrounds him things to be handled, forces to be managed, objects to be put to use.
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Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.
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Time is an essential dimension of existence defiant of man’s power, and truth reigns in supreme majesty, unrivaled, inimitable, and can never be defeated.
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Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation.
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Philosophy, to be relevant, must offer us a wisdom to live by.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL