Sholem Asch Quotes

Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.

The eyes of the soul of the multitudes are unable to endure the vision of the divine.

He who climbs above the cares of this world, and turns his face to his God, has found the sunny side of life.

Let us take our bloated nothingness out of the path of the divine circuits.

O God and Father, I repent of my sinful preoccupation with visible things. The world has been too much with me. Thou hast been here and I knew it not. I have been blind to Thy Presence. Open my eyes that I may behold Thee in and around me. For Christ's sake, Amen.

The Master would insist that the final barrier to our attaining God was the word and concept God.

With every anguish of our earthly part The spirit's sight grows clearer.

Enthusiasm is the height of man; it is the passing from the human to the divine.

It is very difficult to explain this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it. The individual feels the nothingness of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves both in Nature and in the world of though. He looks upon individual existence as a sort of prison and wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole.

A lover of Jesus and of the truth can lift himself above himself in spirit.

You would attain to the divine perfection.

The first step towards attaining a higher standard of holiness is to realize more fully the amazing sinfulness of sin.

Let there be as little materialism as possible, with the maximum of spirituality.

The more of God's Word you know and love, the more of God's Spirit you will experience.

But your isolation must not be mechanical, but spiritual, that is, must be elevation.

What we should be after death, we have to attain in life, i.e. holiness and bliss. Here on earth the Kingdom of God begins.

To love what is below the human is degradation; to love what is human for the sake of the human is mediocrity; to love the human for the sake of the Divine is enriching; to love the Divine for its own sake is sanctity.

The church can have light only as it is full of the Spirit, and it can be full only as the members that compose it are filled individually.

So let me tell you what I think about gods. I think a real god is not going to be so scared or angry that he tries to keep other people down…A real god doesn’t care about control. A real god already has control of everything that needs controlling. Real gods would want to teach you how to be just like them.

O that our souls could scale a height like this, A mighty mountain swept o'er by the bleak Keen winds of heaven; and, standing on that peak Above the blinding clouds of prejudice, Would we could see all truly as it is; The calm eternal truth would keep us meek.

Strive to see God in all things without exception. Do not smother yourself...If you start smothering yourself with a host of cares and longings and wishes ... you will be disabling yourself from serving God with all your heart.

When you're a kid, you just have no concept of anything other than what you're doing.

We must go beyond the intellect and find recourse in pure intelligence, which is spirit and movement.

There is no loftier mission than to approach the Divinity nearer than other men, and to disseminate the divine rays among mankind.

Enlightenment is always through surrender, but surrender is achieved through intelligence. Only idiots cannot surrender. To surrender you need great intelligence. To see the point of surrender is the climax of insight; to see the point that you are not separate from existence is the highest that intelligence can give to you.