The Insecurity of Freedom Quotes

“Short is the way from need to greed.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence

“Are we truly committed to the notion that ideals and values vary and alter in accordance with changing conditions? Should we not question such a relativistic dogma? Is not the degree of our sensitivity to the validity of the ultimate ideals and values that fluctuates rather than the ultimate ideals and values?”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence

“Yet our concern is not how to worship in the catacombs but rather how to remain human in the skyscrapers. NOTES 1 Portions of this section are based on Heschel, Man Is Not Alone (New York: Farrar, Straus, 1951).”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence

“The central commandment is in relation to the person. But religion today has lost sight of the person. Religion has become an impersonal affair, an institutional loyalty. It survives on the level of activities rather than in the stillness of commitment. It has fallen victim to the belief that the real is only that which is capable of being registered by fact-finding surveys.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence

“Our future depends upon our appreciation of the reality of the inner life, of the splendor of thought, of the dignity of wonder and reverence. This is the most important thought: God has a stake in the life of man, of every man. But this idea cannot be imposed from without; it must be discovered by every man; it cannot be preached, it must be experienced.   When”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence