We do not step out of the world when we pray; we merely see the world in a different setting. The self is not the hub but the spoke of the revolving wheel. It is precisely the function of prayer to shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender.
Abraham Joshua HeschelWhen I marched with Martin Luther King in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.
Abraham Joshua HeschelOur concern is not how to worship in the catacombs but how to remain human in the skyscrapers.
Abraham Joshua HeschelWhen 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.
Abraham Joshua Heschel