Quotes By Abraham Joshua Heschel

Man is a messenger who forgot the message.

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

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.

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.

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

Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.

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.

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

The road to the sacred leads through the secular.

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

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

Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.

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?

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

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.

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