Abraham Joshua Heschel

Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.

Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ...get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.

It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor 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.

Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.

Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.

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.