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Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.
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
Humble
Surprise
Answer
Answers
Prayer
Living
Inconceivable
More quotes by Abraham Joshua Heschel
Wise criticism always begins with self-criticism.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Society today is no longer in revolt against particular laws which it finds alien, unjust, and imposed, but against law as such, against the principle of law. And yet we must not regard this revolt as entirely negative. The energy that rejects many obsolete laws is an entirely positive impulse for renewal of life and law.
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 saved.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
The essence of man is not what he is, but in what he is able to be.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
God is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
You must build your life as if it were a work of art.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
(People achieve) fullness of being in fellowship, in care for others.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
We forfeit the right to worship God as long as we continue to humiliate negroes. ... The hour calls for moral grandeur and spiritual audacity.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
When religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
In any free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty - all are responsible.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Self-sufficiency, independence, the capacity to stand apart, to differ, to resist, and to defy-all are modes of being human.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
There are few ideas in the world of thought which contain so much spiritual power as the idea of the Sabbath. Aeons hence, when of many of our cherished theories only shreds will remain, that cosmic tapestry will continue to shine.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
The course of life is unpredictable no one can write his autobiography in advance.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
The idea of dependence is an explanation, whereas self-sufficiency is an unprecedented, nonanalogous concept in terms of what we know about life within nature. Is not self-sufficiency itself insufficient to explain self-sufficiency?
Abraham Joshua Heschel
A soul can create only when alone.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
The test of love is in how one relates not to saints and scholars but to rascals.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ....get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal everything is incredible never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
