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The Biblical words about the genesis of heaven and earth are not words of information but words of appreciation. The story of creation is not a description of how the world came into being but a song about the glory of the world's having come into being.

— Abraham Joshua Heschel The Wisdom of Heschel (1970)

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Religion

More quotes by Abraham Joshua Heschel

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

Who Is Man? (1965)

Love of ultimate meaning is not self-centered but rather a concern to transcend the self.

Who Is Man? (1965)

We manipulate what is available on the surface of the world; we must also stand in awe before the mystery of the world.

Who Is Man? (1965)

My power of probing is easily exhausted, my words fade, but what I sense is not emptiness but inexhaustible abundance, ineffable abundance.

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)

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All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Abraham Joshua Heschel (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.