Life is not meaningful…unle ss it is serving an end beyond itself; unless it is of value to someone else.
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.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments.
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Much of what the Bible demands can be comprised in one imperative: Remember!
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There is a built-in sense of indebtedness in the consciousness of man, an awareness of owing gratitude, or being caled upon at certain moments to reciprocate
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It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.
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The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God. One cannot pray unless he has faith in his own ability to accost the infinite, merciful, eternal God.
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To be is to stand for.
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Man’s sin is in his failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that he is the servant of God.
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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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Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions.
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Religion has become an impersonal affair, an institutional loyalty. It survives on the level of activities rather than in the stillness of commitment.
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Sometimes we wish the world could cry and tell us about that which made it pregnant with fear-filling grandeur. Sometimes we wish our own heart would speak of that which made it heavy with wonder.
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Sometimes we wish our own heart would speak of that which made it heavy with wonder.
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He who is satisfied has never truly craved, and he who craves for the light of God neglects his ease for ardor.
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God cannot be sensed as a second thought, as an explanation of the origin of the universe. He is either the first and the last, or just another concept.
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It is as if He were waiting to enter our empty, perishing lives.
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The liturgical movement must become a revolutionary movement seeking to overthrow the forces that continue to destroy the promise, the hope, the vision.
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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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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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It is not a psychical quality, something that exists in the mind only, but a force from the beyond.
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To sing means to sense and to affirm that the spirit is real and that its glory is present.
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Sometimes there seems to be a greater separation between the church and God than between the church and state.
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Things, when magnified, are forgeries of happiness.
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A soul can create only when alone.
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People are anxious to save up financial means for old age; they should also be anxious to prepare a spiritual means for old age….
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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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Mundus vult decipi’—the world wants to be deceived.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL