Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes - Page 2

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• The test of love is in how one relates not to saints and scholars but to rascals.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Love Is, Saint, Tests

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1973). “A Passion for Truth”, p.85, Macmillan

  55 Copy quote

• One of the major symptoms of the general crisis existent in our world today is our lack of sensitivity to words. We use words as tools. We forget that words are a repository of the spirit. The tragedy of our times is that the vessels of the spirit are broken. We cannot approach the spirit unless we repair the vessels. Reverence for words - an awareness of the wonder of words, of the mystery of words - is an essential prerequisite for prayer. By the word of God the world was created.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Prayer, Our World, Broken

  109 Copy quote

• It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Soul, Gratefulness

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1997). “Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays”, p.342, Macmillan

  66 Copy quote

• A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Children, Tyrants, People

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1955). “Insecurity of Freedom”, p.72, Macmillan

  209 Copy quote

• In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Buddhist, Truth, Life Changing

  64 Copy quote

• People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state--it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle.... Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions. Source: The Wisdom of Heschel

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Appreciation, People, Giving

  182 Copy quote

• Awe enables us to see in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, 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 Heschel

  Simple, World, Common

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1965). “Who is Man?”, p.89, Stanford University Press

  89 Copy quote

• We worry a great deal about the problem of church and state. Now what about the church and God? Sometimes there seems to be a greater separation between the church and God than between the church and state.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Thought Provoking, Worry, Church

  118 Copy quote

• There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Space, Giving, Goal

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (2005). “The Sabbath”, p.15, Macmillan

  88 Copy quote

• A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Love, Encouragement, Religious

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1997). “Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays”, p.289, Macmillan

  100 Copy quote

• God is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  God, Uncles, Nice

  46 Copy quote

• Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Sound, Deeds, Speech

  56 Copy quote

• The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose is to praise, to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a song. Prayer may not save us. But prayer may make us worthy of being saved.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Song, Prayer, Men

  36 Copy quote

• A religious man is a person... whose greatest passion is compassion.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Religious, Passion, Men

  New York Journal-American, April 5, 1963.

  60 Copy quote

• The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Lying, Understanding, Wonder

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1976). “God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism”, p.46, Macmillan

  24 Copy quote

• Awareness of the divine begins with wonder.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Wonder, Awareness, Divine

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1976). “God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism”, p.46, Macmillan

  28 Copy quote

• Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Spiritual, Incredibles, Treats

  "Why is spirituality correlated with life satisfaction?" by Daniel José Camacho, www.theguardian.com. November 12, 2017.

  84 Copy quote

• Every little deed counts.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Deeds, Littles

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1997). “Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays”, p.412, Macmillan

  30 Copy quote

• We can all do our share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and all frustrations and all disappointments.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Disappointment, Frustration, World

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1983). “I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology”, Crossroad Publishing Company

  35 Copy quote

• There are two primary ways in which mans relates himself to the world that surround him: manipulation and appreciation . In the first way he sees in what surrounds him things to be handled, forces to be managed, objects to be put to use. In the second way he sees in what surrounds him things to be acknowledged, understood, valued or admired.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Appreciation, Two, Use

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1965). “Who is Man?”, p.82, Stanford University Press

  64 Copy quote

• The hour calls for moral grandeur and spiritual audacity.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Spiritual, Audacity, Moral

  Telegram to President John F. Kennedy, June 16, 1963.

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• Life without commitment is not worth living.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Love, Commitment, Worth Living

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1976). “God in search of man: a philosophy of Judaism”

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• Wonder, or radical amazement, is a way of going beyond what is given in thing and thought, refusing to take anything for granted, to regard anything as final. It is our honest response to the grandeur and mystery of reality our confrontation with that which transcends the given.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Reality, Finals, Way

  "Who Is Man?". Book by Abraham Joshua Heschel. Chapter 4, 1963.

  12 Copy quote

• Solitude is a necessary protest to the incursions and the false alarms of society's hysteria, a period of cure and recovery.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Recovery, Hysteria, Solitude

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1965). “Who is Man?”, p.44, Stanford University Press

  10 Copy quote

• Mundus vult decipi'—the world wants to be deceived. To live without deception presupposes standards beyond the reach of most people whose existence is largely shaped by compromise, evasion and mutual accommodation. Could they face their weakness, their vanity and selfishness, without a mask?

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Vanity, People, Deception

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1973). “A Passion for Truth”, p.190, Macmillan

  30 Copy quote

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