Quotes about Reflection

The obligation falls upon us to foster in ourselves the sensibilities that modernity has suppressed or even denigrated. ... Without awe, our lives are impoverished, our society decays.

It is in deeds that man becomes aware of what his life really is.

Philosophers do not expend their power and passion unless they themselves are affected. The soul only communes with itself when the heart is stirred.

The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays for the sake of the Sabbath. It is not an interlude but a climax of living.

He who wishes to ponder what is beyond the Bible must first learn to be sensitive to what is within the Bible.

Two sources of religious thinking are given us: memory (tradition) and personal insight. We must rely on our memory and we must strive for fresh insight.

It is not enough to think about the prophets; we must think through the prophets. It is not enough to read the Bible for its wisdom; we must pray the Bible to comprehend its claim.

Philosophy of religion conducted in this manner, then, celebrates humility before the divine, since the awareness of God's overwhelming priority decenters us and puts us in our proper place.

The role of religion is to be a challenge to philosophy, not merely an object for examination.

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, And this too, shall pass away. How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.

I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.