Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
The course of life is unpredictable no one can write his autobiography in advance. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
To abstain completely from all enjoyments may be easy. Yet to enjoy life and retain spiritual integrity - there is the challenge. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
There is no specialized art of prayer. All of life must be a training to pray. We pray the way we live. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
We must first peer into the darkness, feel strangled and entombed in the hopelessness of living without God, before we are ready… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal in time. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
The true meaning of existence is disclosed in moments of living in the presence of God — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of Sabbath. It is not an… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
The tragedy of religion is partly due to its isolation from life, as if God could be segregated. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
Human being is both being in the world and living in the world. Living involves responsible understanding of one's role in relation… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. …get up in the morning and look at the world in a… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
The idea of dependence is an explanation, whereas self-sufficiency is an unprecedented, nonanalogous concept in terms of what we know about life… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
There is a built-in sense of indebtedness in the consciousness of man, an awareness of owing gratitude, or being caled upon at… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give,… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
Being is transcended by a concern for being. Our perplexity will not be solved by relating human existence to a timeless, subpersonal… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
“The meaning of awe is to realize that life takes place under wide horizons, horizons that range beyond the span of an… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
“Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal in time. Our intention here is… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
“The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments. In a religious… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
In our daily lives we attend primarily to that which the senses are spelling out for us: to what the eyes perceive,… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
Life is not meaningful...unle ss it is serving an end beyond itself; unless it is of value to someone else. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
This is one of the goals of the Jewish way of living: to experience commonplace deeds as spiritual adventures, to feel the… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share Image
“The primitive mind finds it hard to realize an idea without the aid of imagination, and it is the realm of space where imagination… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share
“There is a passion and drive for cruel deeds which only the awe and fear of God can soothe; there is a suffocating selfishness… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share
People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share
Ultimately there is no power to narcissistic, self-indulgent thinking. Authentic thinking originates with an encounter with the world. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share
“Usually we regard as meaningful that which can be expressed, and as meaningless that which cannot be expressed. Yet, the equation of the meaningful… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share
Understanding God is not attained by calling into session all arguments for and against Him, in order to debate whether He is a reality… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share
Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself. It is a silent justification affording evil acceptability in society. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share
Religion has become an impersonal affair, an institutional loyalty. It survives on the level of activities rather than in the stillness of commitment. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share
The problem to be faced is: how to combine loyalty to one's own tradition with reverence for different traditions. — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share
The degree to which one is sensitive to other people's suffering, to other (people's) humanity, is the index of one's own humanity — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share
Acceptance is appreciation, and the high value of appreciation is such that to appreciate appreciation seems to be the fundamental prerequisite for survival. Mankind… — Abraham Joshua Heschel Copy Share
