Then comes the insight that All is God. One still realizes that the world is as it was, but it does not matter, it does not affect one's faith. Abraham Joshua Heschel More Quotes by Abraham Joshua Heschel More Quotes From Abraham Joshua Heschel Mundus vult decipi'—the world wants to be deceived. To live without deception presupposes standards beyond the reach of most people whose existence is largely shaped by compromise, evasion and mutual accommodation. Could they face their weakness, their vanity and selfishness, without a mask? Abraham Joshua Heschel vanity deception people To serve does not mean to surrender but to share. Abraham Joshua Heschel surrender doe mean Ultimately there is no power to narcissistic, self-indulgent thinking. Authentic thinking originates with an encounter with the world. Abraham Joshua Heschel encounters self thinking We do not step out of the world when we pray; we merely see the world in a different setting. The self is not the hub but the spoke of the revolving wheel. It is precisely the function of prayer to shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender. Abraham Joshua Heschel different self prayer God is either of no importance, or of supreme importance. Abraham Joshua Heschel supreme importance 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 sabbath inspired weekdays to become aware of the ineffable is to part company with words...the tangent to the curve of human experience lies beyond the limits of language. the world of things we perceive is but a veil. It’s flutter is music, its ornament science, but what it conceals is inscrutable. It’s silence remains unbroken; no words can carry it away. Sometimes we wish the world could cry and tell us about that which made it pregnant with fear--filling grandeur. Sometimes we wish our own heart would speak of that which made it heavy with wonder. Abraham Joshua Heschel curves heart lying Man is naturally self-centered and he is inclined to regard expediency as the supreme standard for what is right and wrong. However, we must not convert an inclination into an axiom that just as man's perceptions cannot operate outside time and space, so his motivations cannot operate outside expediency; that man can never transcend his own self. The most fatal trap into which thinking may fall is the equation of existence and expediency. Abraham Joshua Heschel motivation men fall When religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless. Abraham Joshua Heschel voice compassion names I have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised, surprised at life, at ideas. This is to me the supreme Hasidic imperative: Don't be old. Don't be stale. Abraham Joshua Heschel talent capacity ideas Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal in time. Abraham Joshua Heschel decay failing spiritual To be is to stand for. 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 light darkness self Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge. Abraham Joshua Heschel business inspiring inspirational Wonder, or radical amazement, is a way of going beyond what is given in thing and thought, refusing to take anything for granted, to regard anything as final. It is our honest response to the grandeur and mystery of reality our confrontation with that which transcends the given. Abraham Joshua Heschel finals reality way There is happiness in the love of labor, there is misery in the love of gain. Abraham Joshua Heschel misery gains labor Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me. Abraham Joshua Heschel asks wonder fame Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart. Abraham Joshua Heschel shrines faith heart Sometimes we wish the world could cry and tell us about that which made it pregnant with fear-filling grandeur. Sometimes we wish our own heart would speak of that which made it heavy with wonder. Abraham Joshua Heschel wish heart world 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 loyalty commitment religion
