Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes

I always try to share with others the idea that in order to become compassionate it is not necessary to become religious.

A life of kindness is the primary meaning of divine worship.

Why does God endow us with compassion?

There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.

As for what concerns our relations with our fellow men, the anguish in our neighbor's soul must break all precept. All that we do is a means to an end, but love is an end in itself, because God is love.

The faith must express itself in charity and in solidarity, which is the civil form of charity.

Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion.

My faith is central to everything I do. My faith position is a Good Samaritan position of trying to watch out for the other person.

Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.

The most important elements of faith [are] believing in something bigger than yourself, taking care of those less fortunate than you.

If you have no wish to bring others to heaven, you are not going there yourself.

What is my religion? Simple. Kindness.

There must be people who pray even for those who never pray.

I believe in prayer. I believe in gratitude and serving people.

Compassion enables you to reach to the heavens and look through the heart of God.

My philosophy is to do the best you can for somebody. Help. It's not just what do you for yourself. It's how you treat people decently. The golden rule. There isn't big anything better than the golden rule. It's in every major religion in one language or another.

My service to humanity is my real opportunity to prove my genuine love for God and God alone.

Love God; love others; do your best in all you do, even if you fall short!

This idea of compassion comes to us because we're made in the image of God, who is ultimately the compassionate one.

There is no verb for compassion, but you have an adverb for compassion. That's interesting to me. You act compassionately. But then, how to act compassionately if you don't have compassion? That is where you fake. You fake it and make it. This is the mantra of the United States of America.

If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject.

As long as I'm a good person and I do things from the heart, that's all that matters.

I try to make my life about service, and hope that one day we can all 'see' a little better because God is with everyone and everywhere.

Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.

So I would hope they would develop some kind of habit that involves understanding that their life is so full they can afford to give in all kinds of ways to other people. I consider that to be baseline spirituality.