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...morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

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Abraham Joshua Heschel
Age: 65 †
Born: 1907
Born: January 11
Died: 1972
Died: December 23
Judaic Scholar
Philosopher
Rabbi
University Teacher
Warszawa
Abraham Heschel
Must
Beings
Indifference
Feels
Suffering
Limit
Society
Guilty
Free
Speaking
Evil
Worse
Human
Concern
Humans
Responsible
Feel
Limits
Morally

More quotes by Abraham Joshua Heschel

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It is of the essence of virtue that the good is not to be done for the sake of a reward.
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When I marched with Martin Luther King in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.
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Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions.
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Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.
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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.
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The awe of God is wisdom.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
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The problem to be faced is: how to combine loyalty to one's own tradition with reverence for different traditions.
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It is not enough for me to ask question I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?
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The tragedy of religion is partly due to its isolation from life, as if God could be segregated.
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A prophet's true greatness is his ability to hold God and man in a single thought.
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As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind. Mankind will not perish for want of information but only for want of appreciation.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
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Things, when magnified, are forgeries of happiness.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
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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.... Wisdom, maturity, tranquility do not come all of a sudden when we retire.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
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Our age is one in which usefulness is thought to be the chief merit of nature in which the attainment of power, the utilization of its resources is taken to be the chief purpose of man in God's creation. Man has indeed become primarily a tool-making animal, and the world is now a gigantic tool box for the satisfaction of his needs.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
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Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
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The work on weekdays and the rest on the seventh day are correlated. The Sabbath is the inspirer, the other days the inspired.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
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The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays the weekdays are for the sake of Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
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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
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In any free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty - all are responsible.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
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Instead of indulging in jealousy, greed, in relishing themselves, there are men who keep their hearts alert to the stillness in which time rolls on and leaves us behind. ... those who are open to the wonder will not miss it. Faith is found in solicitude for faith, in an inner care for the wonder that is everywhere.
Abraham Joshua Heschel