Quotes from Abraham Joshua Heschel

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.

When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people.

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.

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

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 beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living.

We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn, or scoff at the totality of being.

Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.

The problem to be faced is: how to combine loyalty to one's own tradition with reverence for different traditions.

God is either of no importance, or of supreme importance.

To gain control of the world of space is certainly one of our tasks. The danger begins when in gaining power in the realm of space we forfeit all aspirations in the realm of time. There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern.

To be or not to be is not the question, the vital question is how to be and how not to be.