A religious man is a person… whose greatest passion is compassion.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELIn a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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Those who are open to the wonder will not miss it. Faith is found in solicitude for faith, in an inner care for the wonder that is everywhere.
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We can all do our share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and all frustrations and all disappointments.
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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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Yet the abyss is not not infinite; its bottom may suddenly be discovered within the confines of a human heart or under the debris of might doubts.
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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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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.
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Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.
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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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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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All that is left is to us is our being horrified at the loss of our sense of horror.
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The opposite of good is not evil, the opposite of good is indifference.
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Knowledge-like the sky- is never private property. No teacher has a right to withhold it from anyone who asks for it. Teaching is the art of sharing.
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To be is to stand for.
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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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Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city; but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL