There are no two hours alike. Every hour is unique and the only one given at the moment, exclusive and endlessly precious. Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time; to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year.

— Abraham Joshua Heschel

The Search for reason ends at the known; on the immense expanse beyond it only the sense of the ineffable can glide. It alone knows the route to that which is remote from experience and understanding. Neither of them is amphibious: reason cannot go beyond the shore, and the sense of the ineffable is out of place where we measure, where we weigh. We do not leave the shore of the known in search of adventure or suspense or because of the failure of reason to answer our questions. We sail because our mind is like a fantastic seashell, and when applying our ear to its lips we hear a perpetual murmur from the waves beyond the shore. Citizens of two realms, we all must sustain a dual allegiance: we sense the ineffable in one realm, we name and exploit reality in another. Between the two we set up a system of references, but we can never fill the gap. They are as far and as close to each other as time and calendar, as violin and melody, as life and what lies beyond the last breath.

— Abraham Joshua Heschel

The surest way to suppress our ability to understand the meaning of God and the importance of worship is to take things for granted... Indifference to the sublime wonder of living is the root of sin.

— Abraham Joshua Heschel

This is one of the goals of the Jewish way of living: to experience commonplace deeds as spiritual adventures, to feel the hidden love and wisdom in all things.

— Abraham Joshua Heschel

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

— Abraham Joshua Heschel

To us, recollection is a holy act; we sanctify the present by remembering the past. To us Jews, the essence of faith is memory. To believe is to remember.

— Abraham Joshua Heschel

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

— Abraham Joshua Heschel

We may not know whether our understanding is correct, or whether our sentiments are noble, but the air of the day surrounds us like spring which spreads over the land without our aid or notice.

— Abraham Joshua Heschel

Who is a Jew? A person whose integrity decays when unmoved by the knowledge of wrong done to other people.

— Abraham Joshua Heschel

Wonder or radical amazement is the chief characteristic of the religious man's attitude toward history and nature.

— Abraham Joshua Heschel