Abraham Joshua Heschel Quotes

And for the few that only lend their ear, That few is all the world.

The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.

Knowledge is recognition of something absent; it is a salutation, not an embrace.

Visual representation of it is essential if we're to come to terms with what it is we've done.

I don't always feel seen.

Truth is seldom appreciated and never understood, whereas a flattering lie is always appreciated and instantly understood.

Then again, what seems like nothing in the eyes of the world, when properly valued and put to use, can be among the greatest riches.

The best way to be thankful is to use the goods the gods provide you.

It is the search for beauty...That is what it is. We find ourselves on this earth--gods and men--and we know that it is beautiful. That is one of the few things we understand--beauty; because it is there, in the world, and we can see it all about us. We want beauty. It requires our love. It just does.

Wouldn't he know without being asked?' said Polly. 'I've no doubt he would,' said the Horse (still with his mouth full). 'But I've a sort of an idea he likes to be asked.

We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. Or hear. Or sense.

All I'm saying is that you should show some respect for what other people see with their eyes and feel with their fingers, even though it be the exact opposite.

In naming that which is right before me, that which I'd otherwise miss, the invisible becomes visible.

It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to 'see through' [everything]. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To 'see through' all things is the same as not to see.

Respect a man, and he will do all the more.

Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it

People who are criticizing... don't really get it, because if they did, they would like it.

Nothing convinces persons of a weak understanding so effectually, as what they do not comprehend.

The beauty that is there is also available for me, too. But I see a deeper beauty that isn't so readily available to others.... I don't see how studying a flower ever detracts from its beauty. It only adds

Truth is the same thing to the understanding, as Music to the ear, and Beauty to the eye.

life's kind of like a painting. A really bizarre, abstract painting. You could look at it and think that all it is, is a blur. And you could continue living your life thinking that all it is, is just a blur. But if you really look at it, really see it, focus on it, and use your imagination, life can become so much more. The painting could be of the sea, the sky, people,buildings, a butterfly on a flower, or anything except the blur you were once convinced it was.

Or perhaps all those things you missed upon first glance mean much more than you could ever guess.

Sometimes we don't notice that someone is being brave, because they are only doing something that seems quite easy for us.

It is so wonderful to our neurologists that a man can see without his eyes, that it does not occur to them that is just as wonderful that he should see with them; and that is ever the difference between the wise and the unwise: the latter wonders at what is unusual, the wise man wonders at the usual.

A life alert to simple pleasures, with perception cultivated and attuned to beauty, and a large capacity for friendship can serve us well come what may.