Our concern is not how to worship in the catacombs but how to remain human in the skyscrapers.

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.

Solitude is a necessary protest to the incursions and the false alarms of society's hysteria, a period of cure and recovery.

I am commanded therefore I am.

It is of the essence of virtue that the good is not to be done for the sake of a reward.

It is not enough for me to ask question; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?

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