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Abraham Joshua Heschel on Faith

1907–1972 Poland

← All quotes by Abraham Joshua Heschel

15 quotes

Faith is not belief, an assent to a proposition, faith is attachment to the meaning beyond the mystery.

Who Is Man? (1965)

Faith is something that comes out of the soul. It is not an information that is absorbed but an attitude, existing prior to the formulation of any creed.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

Faith is sensitiveness to what transcends nature, knowledge and will, awareness of the ultimate, alertness to the holy dimension of all reality.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

Faith opens our hearts for the entrance of the holy. It is almost as though God were thinking for us.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

Knowledge is fostered by curiosity; wisdom is fostered by awe. Awe precedes faith; it is the root of faith. We must be guided by awe to be worthy of faith.

Who Is Man? (1965)

The proper relation is a minimum of creed and a maximum of faith.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

There is neither advance nor service without faith.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but the endless, tameless pilgrimage of hearts.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

Faith is not a thing that comes into being out of nothing. It originates in an event.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

All scientific conclusions are based on axioms, all reasoning depends ultimately upon faith.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

Transcendence is not an article of faith. It is what we come upon immediately when standing face to face with reality.

Who Is Man? (1965)

Language has been reduced to labels, talk has become double-talk. We are in the process of losing faith in the reality of words.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

There are many creeds but only one faith. Creeds may change, develop, and grow flat, while the substance of faith remains the same in all ages.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

The rush of reason is an effort of limited strength.
Faith is not the miniature of thinking but its model, not its shadow but its root.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

All action is vicarious faith.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Abraham Joshua Heschel (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.