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.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

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

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

God is of no importance unless He is of supreme importance.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

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

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?
Abraham Joshua Heschel

Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

Man is a messenger who forgot the message.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

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.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

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


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

The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

The road to the sacred leads through the secular.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

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

Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

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