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 HESCHELTo sense the ultimate in the common and the simple, to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELUnderstanding God is not attained by calling into session all arguments for and against Him, in order to debate whether He is a reality or a figment of the mind.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELAt all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELWe worry a great deal about the problem of church and state. Now what about the church and God?
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELFaith is something that comes out of the soul. It is not an information that is absorbed but an attitude, existing prior to the formulation of any creed.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELIn the darkest night to be certain of the dawn…to go through Hell and to continue to trust in the goodness of God-this is the challenge and the way.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELTo us a single act of injustice–cheating in business, exploitation of the poor–is slight; to the prophets, a disaster.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELThe work on weekdays and the rest on the seventh day are correlated. The Sabbath is the inspirer, the other days the inspired.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELIt 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 HESCHELThe beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELPrayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism, falsehoods.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELThe idea of dependence is an explanation, whereas self-sufficiency is an unprecedented, nonanalogous concept in terms of what we know about life within nature.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELNormal consciousness is a state of stupor, in which the sensibility to the wholly real and responsiveness to the stimuli of the spirit are reduced.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELMankind will not die for lack of information; it may perish for lack of appreciation.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELFor many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELWhen I see an act of evil I don’t accomodate, I don’t accomodate myself to the violence that goes on everywhere.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL