Quotes by Abraham Joshua Heschel

About Abraham Joshua Heschel:

Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, authored a number of widely read books on Jewish philosophy and was active in the American Civil Rights movement.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

This is one of the goals of the Jewish way of living: to experience commonplace deeds as spiritual adventures, to feel the hidden love and wisdom in all things.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Wonder or radical amazement is the chief characteristic of the religious man's attitude toward history and nature.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Are we truly committed to the notion that ideals and values vary and alter in accordance with changing conditions? Should we not question such a relativistic dogma? Is not the degree of our sensitivity to the validity of the ultimate ideals and value...

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Who is a Jew? A person whose integrity decays when unmoved by the knowledge of wrong done to other people.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

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 sa...

Abraham Joshua Heschel

The Search for reason ends at the known; on the immense expanse beyond it only the sense of the ineffable can glide. It alone knows the route to that which is remote from experience and understanding. Neither of them is amphibious: reason cannot go b...

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Man is not a beast of burden, and the Sabbath is not for the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of his work.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

We may not know whether our understanding is correct, or whether our sentiments are noble, but the air of the day surrounds us like spring which spreads over the land without our aid or notice.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

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.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

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

God is not a hypothesis derived from logical assumptions, but an immediate insight, self-evident as light. He is not something to be sought in the darkness with the light of reason. He is the light.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

He who is satisfied has never truly craved, and he who craves for the light of God neglects his ease for ardor.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Worship is a way of seeing the world in the light of God.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

God is of no importance unless He is of supreme importance.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

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 cult...

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Author Bio

  • NameAbraham Joshua Heschel
  • DescriptionPolish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi
  • BornJanuary 11, 1907
  • DiedDecember 23, 1972
  • CountryUnited States Of America; Poland
  • ProfessionRabbi; Philosopher; Judaic Scholar
  • AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship