Indeed, the sort of crimes and even the amount of delinquency that fill the prophets of Israel with dismay do not go beyond that which we regard as normal, as typical ingredients of social dynamics.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHELTo us a single act of injustice–cheating in business, exploitation of the poor–is slight; to the prophets, a disaster.
More Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes
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God is everywhere or nowhere, the father of all people or of none, concerned about everything or nothing.
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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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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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I am still so surprised! That is why I am against it. We must learn to be surprised.
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When faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.
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When I marched with Martin Luther King in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.
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Prayer begins where our power ends.
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However, we must not convert an inclination into an axiom that just as man’s perceptions cannot operate outside time and space, so his motivations cannot operate outside expediency;
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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.
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Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.
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Pagans exalt sacred things, the Prophets extol sacred deeds.
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Man is a messenger who forgot the message.
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The true meaning of existence is disclosed in moments of living in the presence of God
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To pray is to dream in league with God, to envision His holy visions.
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Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal in time.
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL