Man Is Not Alone Quotes

“The Search for reason ends at the known; on the immense expanse beyond it only the sense of the ineffable can glide. It alone knows the route to that which is remote from experience and understanding. Neither of them is amphibious: reason cannot go beyond the shore, and the sense of the ineffable is out of place where we measure, where we weigh. We do not leave the shore of the known in search of adventure or suspense or because of the failure of reason to answer our questions. We sail because our mind is like a fantastic seashell, and when applying our ear to its lips we hear a perpetual murmur from the waves beyond the shore. Citizens of two realms, we all must sustain a dual allegiance: we sense the ineffable in one realm, we name and exploit reality in another. Between the two we set up a system of references, but we can never fill the gap. They are as far and as close to each other as time and calendar, as violin and melody, as life and what lies beyond the last breath.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion

“Usually we regard as meaningful that which can be expressed, and as meaningless that which cannot be expressed. Yet, the equation of the meaningful and the expressible ignores a vast realm of human experience, and is refuted by our sense of the ineffable which is an awareness of an allusiveness to meaning without the ability to express it.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion

“It seems as though we have arrived at a period of a divine eclipse in human history. We sail the seas, we count the stars, we split the atom, but we never ask: Is there nothing but a dead universe and our reckless curiosity?

Horrified by the discovery of man's power to bring about the annihilation of organic life on this planet, we are today beginning to comprehend that the sense for the sacred is as vital to us as the light of the sun; that the enjoyment of beauty, possessions and safety in civilized society depends upon man's sense for the sacredness of life, upon his reverence for this spark of light in the darkness of selfishness; that once we permit this spark to be quenched, the darkness falls upon us like thunder.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion

“With information we are alone; in appreciation we are with all things.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion

“God is not a hypothesis derived from logical assumptions, but an immediate insight, self-evident as light. He is not something to be sought in the darkness with the light of reason. He is the light.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion

“Het begin van geluk is gelegen in het begrip dat het leven zonder verwondering niet de moeite waard is geleefd te worden. (p.56)”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, De mens is niet alleen

“Faith is not a product of our will. It occurs without intention, without will. Words expire when uttered, and faith is like the silence that draws lovers near, like a breath that shares in the wind.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion

“no man is free who is not a master of himself, that the more liberties we enjoy, the more discipline we need.46 Laissez-faire,”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion