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When Religion Speaks Only In The Name Of Authority Rather Than With The Voice Of Compassion, Its Message Becomes Meaningless.
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
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When Religion Speaks Only

Abraham Joshua Heschel
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When Religion Speaks Only In The Name Of Authority Rather Than With The Voice Of Compassion, Its Message Becomes Meaningless.

Understanding the Quote: "when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with..."

This quote by Abraham Joshua Heschel reflects deeply on the theme of compassion. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Compassion, Names, Voice, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Abraham Joshua Heschel interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Abraham Joshua Heschel

Abraham Joshua Heschel is celebrated for insightful thoughts on compassion and names. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Compassion
Names
Voice
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Wonder Rather Than Doubt Is The Root Of All Knowledge.
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To Become Aware Of The Ineffable Is To Part Company With Words...the Tangent To The Curve Of Human Experience Lies Beyond The Limits Of Language. The World Of Things We Perceive Is But A Veil. It’s Flutter Is Music, Its Ornament Science, But What It Conceals Is Inscrutable. It’s Silence Remains Unbroken; No Words Can Carry It Away. Sometimes We Wish The World Could Cry And Tell Us About That Which Made It Pregnant With Fear--filling Grandeur. Sometimes We Wish Our Own Heart Would Speak Of That Which Made It Heavy With Wonder.
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Our Age Is One In Which Usefulness Is Thought To Be The Chief Merit Of Nature; In Which The Attainment Of Power, The Utilization Of Its Resources Is Taken To Be The Chief Purpose Of Man In God's Creation. Man Has Indeed Become Primarily A Tool-making Animal, And The World Is Now A Gigantic Tool Box For The Satisfaction Of His Needs.
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Mundus Vult Decipi'—the World Wants To Be Deceived. To Live Without Deception Presupposes Standards Beyond The Reach Of Most People Whose Existence Is Largely Shaped By Compromise, Evasion And Mutual Accommodation. Could They Face Their Weakness, Their Vanity And Selfishness, Without A Mask?
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Normal Consciousness Is A State Of Stupor, In Which The Sensibility To The Wholly Real And Responsiveness To The Stimuli Of The Spirit Are Reduced. The Mystics, Knowing That Man Is Involved In A Hidden History Of The Cosmos, Endeavor To Awake From The Drowsiness And Apathy And To Regain The State Of Wakefulness For Their Enchanted Souls.
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Knowledge-like The Sky- Is Never Private Property. No Teacher Has A Right To Withhold It From Anyone Who Asks For It. Teaching Is The Art Of Sharing.
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We Worry A Great Deal About The Problem Of Church And State. Now What About The Church And God? Sometimes There Seems To Be A Greater Separation Between The Church And God Than Between The Church And State.
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Man Is Naturally Self-centered And He Is Inclined To Regard Expediency As The Supreme Standard For What Is Right And Wrong. However, We Must Not Convert An Inclination Into An Axiom That Just As Man's Perceptions Cannot Operate Outside Time And Space, So His Motivations Cannot Operate Outside Expediency; That Man Can Never Transcend His Own Self. The Most Fatal Trap Into Which Thinking May Fall Is The Equation Of Existence And Expediency.
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Awareness Of The Divine Begins With Wonder.
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The Idea Of Dependence Is An Explanation, Whereas Self-sufficiency Is An Unprecedented, Nonanalogous Concept In Terms Of What We Know About Life Within Nature. Is Not Self-sufficiency Itself Insufficient To Explain Self-sufficiency?
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Never Once In My Life Did I Ask God For Success Or Wisdom Or Power Or Fame. I Asked For Wonder, And He Gave It To Me.
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(people) Can Never Attain Fulfillment, Or Sense Of Meaning, Unless It Is Shared, Unless It Pertains To Other Human Beings.
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Man's Sin Is In His Failure To Live What He Is. Being The Master Of The Earth, Man Forgets That He Is The Servant Of God.
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The Tragedy Of Religion Is Partly Due To Its Isolation From Life, As If God Could Be Segregated.
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How Embarrassing For Man To Be The Greatest Miracle On Earth And Not To Understand It!
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In Our Daily Lives We Attend Primarily To That Which The Senses Are Spelling Out For Us: To What The Eyes Perceive, To What The Fingers Touch. Reality To Us Is Thinghood , Consisting Of Substances That Occupy Space; Even God Is Conceived By Most Of Us As A Thing. The Result Of Our Thinginess Is Our Blindness To All Reality That Fails To Identify Itself As A Thing, As A Matter Of Fact.
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Remember That There Is Meaning Beyond Absurdity. Know That Every Deed Counts, That Every Word Is Power...above All, Remember That You Must Build Your Life As If It Were A Work Of Art.
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I Would Say About Individuals, A Individual Dies When They Cease To To Be Surprised. I Am Surprised Every Morning When I See The Sunshine Again. When I See An Act Of Evil I Don't Accomodate, I Don't Accomodate Myself To The Violence That Goes On Everywhere. I Am Still So Surprised! That Is Why I Am Against It. We Must Learn To Be Surprised.
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Forfeit Your Sense Of Awe, Let Your Conceit Diminish Your Ability To Revere, And The Universe Becomes A Market Place For You.
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Prayer Is Not A Stratagem For Occasional Use, A Refuge To Resort To Now And Then. It Is Rather Like An Established Residence For The Innermost Self. All Things Have A Home: The Bird Has A Nest, The Fox Has A Hole, The Bee Has A Hive. A Soul Without Prayer Is A Soul Without A Home.
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Life Without Commitment Is Not Worth Living.
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God Is Not Nice. God Is Not An Uncle. God Is An Earthquake.
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God Is Everywhere Or Nowhere, The Father Of All People Or Of None, Concerned About Everything Or Nothing. Only In His Presence Shall We Learn That The Glory Of Humankind Is Not In Its Will To Power But In Its Power Of Compassion.
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Indeed, The Sort Of Crimes And Even The Amount Of Delinquency That Fill The Prophets Of Israel With Dismay Do Not Go Beyond That Which We Regard As Normal, As Typical Ingredients Of Social Dynamics. To Us A Single Act Of Injustice--cheating In Business, Exploitation Of The Poor--is Slight; To The Prophets, A Disaster. To Us Injustice Is Injurious To The Welfare Of The People; To The Prophets It Is A Deathblow To Existence: To Us, An Episode; To Them, A Catastrophe, A Threat To The World.
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People Of Our Time Are Losing The Power Of Celebration. Instead Of Celebrating We Seek To Be Amused Or Entertained. Celebration Is An Active State, An Act Of Expressing Reverence Or Appreciation. To Be Entertained Is A Passive State--it Is To Receive Pleasure Afforded By An Amusing Act Or A Spectacle.... Celebration Is A Confrontation, Giving Attention To The Transcendent Meaning Of One's Actions. Source: The Wisdom Of Heschel
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Racism Is Man's Gravest Threat To Man - The Maximum Of Hatred For A Minimum Of Reason.
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Every Little Deed Counts.
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Much Of What The Bible Demands Can Be Comprised In One Imperative: Remember!
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Philosophy May Be Defined As The Art Of Asking The Right Question...awareness Of The Problem Outlives All Solutions. The Answers Are Questions In Disguise, Every New Answer Giving Rise To New Questions.
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Sometimes We Wish The World Could Cry And Tell Us About That Which Made It Pregnant With Fear-filling Grandeur. Sometimes We Wish Our Own Heart Would Speak Of That Which Made It Heavy With Wonder.
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All That Is Left Is To Us Is Our Being Horrified At The Loss Of Our Sense Of Horror.
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Left
Dear Lord, Grant Me The Grace Of Wonder. Surprise Me, Amaze Me, Awe Me In Every Crevice Of Your Universe. Each Day Enrapture Me With Your Marvelous Things Without Number. ...i Do Not Ask To See The Reason For It All: I Ask Only To Share The Wonder Of It All.
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We Forfeit The Right To Worship God As Long As We Continue To Humiliate Negroes. ... The Hour Calls For Moral Grandeur And Spiritual Audacity.
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The Supremacy Of Expediency Is Being Refuted By Time And Truth. Time Is An Essential Dimension Of Existence Defiant Of Man's Power, And Truth Reigns In Supreme Majesty, Unrivaled, Inimitable, And Can Never Be Defeated.
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The True Meaning Of Existence Is Disclosed In Moments Of Living In The Presence Of God
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Understanding God Is Not Attained By Calling Into Session All Arguments For And Against Him, In Order To Debate Whether He Is A Reality Or A Figment Of The Mind. God Cannot Be Sensed As A Second Thought, As An Explanation Of The Origin Of The Universe. He Is Either The First And The Last, Or Just Another Concept.
Atheist
Reality
Understanding God
The Meaning Of The Sabbath Is To Celebrate Time Rather Than Space. Six Days A Week We Live Under The Tyranny Of Things Of Space; On The Sabbath We Try To Become Attuned To Holiness In Time. It Is A Day On Which We Are Called Upon To Share In What Is Eternal In Time, To Turn From The Results Of Creation To The Mystery Of Creation; From The World Of Creation To The Creation Of The World.
Space
Trying
Six
Self-sufficiency, Independence, The Capacity To Stand Apart, To Differ, To Resist, And To Defy-all Are Modes Of Being Human.
Self
Independence
Being Human
The Time For The Kingdom May Be Far Off, But The Task Is Plain: To Retain Our Share In God In Spite Of Peril And Contempt. There Is A War To Wage Against The Vulgar, The Glorification Of The Absurd, A War That Is Incessant, Universal. Loyal To The Presence Of The Ultimate In The Common, We May Be Able To Make It Clear That Man Is More Than Man, That In Doing The Finite He May Perceive The Infinite .
War
Men
Tasks
Being Is Transcended By A Concern For Being. Our Perplexity Will Not Be Solved By Relating Human Existence To A Timeless, Subpersonal Abstraction Which We Call Essence. We Can Do Justice To Human Being Only By Relating It To The Transcendent Care For Being.
Essence
Justice
Care
There Are Few Ideas In The World Of Thought Which Contain So Much Spiritual Power As The Idea Of The Sabbath. Aeons Hence, When Of Many Of Our Cherished Theories Only Shreds Will Remain, That Cosmic Tapestry Will Continue To Shine.
Spiritual
Ideas
Shining
In The Midst Of Our Applauding The Feats Of Civilization, The Bible Flings Itself Like A Knife Slashing Our Complacency; Remind Us That God, Too, Has A Voice In History.
Knives
Civilization
Voice
There Are No Two Hours Alike. Every Hour Is Unique And The Only One Given At The Moment, Exclusive And Endlessly Precious. Judaism Teaches Us To Be Attached To Holiness In Time; To Learn How To Consecrate Sanctuaries That Emerge From The Magnificent Stream Of A Year.
Unique
Years
Two
The Road To The Sacred Leads Through The Secular.
Sacred
Secular
Awe Enables Us To See In The World Intimations Of The Divine, To Sense In Small Things The Beginning Of Infinite Significance, To Sense The Ultimate In The Common And The Simple, To Feel In The Rush Of The Passing The Stillness Of The Eternal.
Simple
World
Common
There Is A Realm Of Time Where The Goal Is Not To Have But To Be, Not To Own But To Give, Not To Control But To Share, Not To Subdue But To Be In Accord. Life Goes Wrong When The Control Of Space, The Acquisition Of Things Of Space, Becomes Our Sole Concern.
Space
Giving
Goal
Ultimately There Is No Power To Narcissistic, Self-indulgent Thinking. Authentic Thinking Originates With An Encounter With The World.
Thinking
Self
Encounters
Wonder Or Radical Amazement Is The Chief Characteristic Of The Religious Man's Attitude Toward History And Nature.
Faith
Religious
Attitude
People Are Anxious To Save Up Financial Means For Old Age; They Should Also Be Anxious To Prepare A Spiritual Means For Old Age.... Wisdom, Maturity, Tranquility Do Not Come All Of A Sudden When We Retire.
Spiritual
Mean
Maturity
All Events Are Secretly Interrelated; The Sweep Of All We Are Doing Reaches Beyond The Horizon Of Our Comprehension.
Relationship
Horizon
Events
All Action Is Vicarious Faith.
Action
Vicarious
Acceptance Is Appreciation, And The High Value Of Appreciation Is Such That To Appreciate Appreciation Seems To Be The Fundamental Prerequisite For Survival. Mankind Will Not Die For Lack Of Information; It May Perish For Lack Of Appreciation.
Appreciation
Acceptance
Appreciate
Speech Has Power. Words Do Not Fade. What Starts Out As A Sound, Ends In A Deed.
Sound
Deeds
Speech
Self-respect Is The Root Of Discipline
Self
Roots
Discipline
Life Is Not Meaningful...unle Ss It Is Serving An End Beyond Itself; Unless It Is Of Value To Someone Else.
Meaningful
Life Is
Ends
The Worship Of Reason Is Arrogance And Betrays A Lack Of Intelligence. The Rejection Of Reason Is Cowardice And Betrays A Lack Of Faith.
Rejection
Arrogance
Worship
The Test Of Love Is In How One Relates Not To Saints And Scholars But To Rascals.
Love Is
Saint
Tests
(people Achieve) Fullness Of Being In Fellowship, In Care For Others.
People
Care
Fellowship
When Faith Is Completely Replaced By Creed, Worship By Discipline, Love By Habit; When The Crisis Of Today Is Ignored Because Of The Splendors Of The Past; When Faith Becomes An Heirloom Rather Than A Living Fountain; When Religion Speaks Only In The Name Of Authority Rather Than With The Voice Of Compassion, Its Message Becomes Meaningless.
Past
Compassion
Names
New Insight Begins When Satisfaction Comes To An End, When All That Has Been Seen, Said, Or Done Looks Like A Distortion. ... Man's True Fulfillment Depends On Communion With That Which Transcends Him.
Men
Looks
Done
A Prophet's True Greatness Is His Ability To Hold God And Man In A Single Thought.
Greatness
Men
Prophet
...morally Speaking, There Is No Limit To The Concern One Must Feel For The Suffering Of Human Beings, That Indifference To Evil Is Worse Than Evil Itself, That In A Free Society, Some Are Guilty, But All Are Responsible.
Evil
Suffering
Limits
In Any Free Society Where Terrible Wrongs Exist, Some Are Guilty - All Are Responsible.
Guilty
Responsible
Terrible
Proximity To The Crowd, To The Majority View, Spells The Death Of Creativity. For A Soul Can Create Only When Alone, And Some Are Chosen For The Flowering That Takes Place In The Dark Avenues Of Night.
Creativity
Dark
Night
The Problem To Be Faced Is: How To Combine Loyalty To One's Own Tradition With Reverence For Different Traditions.
Loyalty
Religious
Tolerance
We Must First Peer Into The Darkness, Feel Strangled And Entombed In The Hopelessness Of Living Without God, Before We Are Ready To Feel The Presence Of His Living Light.
Light
Darkness
Peers
Things, When Magnified, Are Forgeries Of Happiness.
Forgery
The Anchor Of Meaning Resides In An Abyss, Deeper Than The Reach Of Despair. Yet The Abyss Is Not Not Infinite; Its Bottom May Suddenly Be Discovered Within The Confines Of A Human Heart Or Under The Debris Of Might Doubts. This May Be The Vocation Of Man: To Say "amen" To Being And To The Author Of Being; To Live In Defiance Of Absurdity, Notwithstanding Futility And Defeat; To Attain Faith In God Even In Spite Of God.
Heart
Men
Anchors
Faith Like Job's Cannot Be Shaken Becasue It Is The Result Of Having Been Shaken.
Faith
Religious
Jobs
A Religious Man Is A Person Who Holds God And Man In One Thought At One Time, At All Times, Who Suffers Harm Done To Others, Whose Greatest Passion Is Compassion, Whose Greatest Strength Is Love And Defiance Of Despair.
Love
Encouragement
Religious
The Task Of Life Is To Face Sacred Moments.
Tasks
Sacred
Faces
The Degree To Which One Is Sensitive To Other People's Suffering, To Other (people's) Humanity, Is The Index Of One's Own Humanity
People
Humanity
Suffering
To Become Aware Of The Ineffable Is To Part Company With Words.
Ineffable
Company
You Must Build Your Life As If It Were A Work Of Art.
Art
Works Of Art
Ifs
Then Comes The Insight That All Is God. One Still Realizes That The World Is As It Was, But It Does Not Matter, It Does Not Affect One's Faith.
God
Doe
World
There Is A Built-in Sense Of Indebtedness In The Consciousness Of Man, An Awareness Of Owing Gratitude, Or Being Caled Upon At Certain Moments To Reciprocate, To Answer, To Live In A Way Which Is Compatible With The Grandeur And Mystery Of Living.
Gratitude
Men
Answers
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.
Attitude
Soul
Information
Prayer Is Our Humble Answer To The Inconceivable Surprise Of Living.
Prayer
Humble
Answers
To Pray Is To Dream In League With God, To Envision His Holy Visions.
Dream
League
Vision
In A Controversy, The Instant We Feel Anger, We Have Already Ceased Striving For Truth And Have Begun Striving For Ourselves.
Buddhist
Truth
Life Changing
When Religion Speaks Only In The Name Of Authority Rather Than With The Voice Of Compassion, Its Message Becomes Meaningless.
Compassion
Names
Voice
Faith Opens Our Hearts For The Entrance Of The Holy. It Is Almost As Though God Were Thinking For Us.
Heart
Thinking
Holy
It Is Dangerous To Take Human Freedom For Granted, To Regard It As A Prerogative Rather Than As An Obligation, As An Ultimate Fact Rather Than As An Ultimate Goal. It Is The Beginning Of Wisdom To Be Amazed At The Fact Of Our Being Free.
Freedom
Goal
Being Free
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