“Freedom is not a natural disposition, but God's precious gift to man. Those in whom viciousness becomes second-nature, those in whom brutality is linked with haughtiness, forfeit their ability and therefore their right to receive that gift. Hardening of the heart is the suspension of freedom.”

Volume 1, p. 191
The Prophets (1962)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Freedom is not a natural disposition, but God's precious gift to man. Those in whom viciousness becomes second-nature, …" by Abraham Joshua Heschel?
Abraham Joshua Heschel photo
Abraham Joshua Heschel 130
Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi 1907–1972

Related quotes

Benjamin Franklin photo

“[Freedom is] not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

This is actually from an essay "On Government No. I" that appeared in Franklin's paper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, on 1 April 1736. The author was John Webbe. He wrote about the privileges enjoyed under British rule,
:Thank God! we are in the full enjoyment of all these privileges. But can we be taught to prize them too much? or how can we prize them equal to their value, if we do not know their intrinsic worth, and that they are not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature?
Misattributed

Denis Diderot photo

“No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he is in enjoyment of his reason.”

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist

Aucun homme n'a recu de la nature le droit de commander aux autres. La liberté est un présent du ciel, et chaque individu de la meme espèce a le droit d'en jouir aussitòt qu'il jouit de la raison.
Article on Political Authority, Vol. 1, (1751) as quoted in Selected Writings (1966) edited by Lester G. Crocker
Variant translation: No man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings.
L'Encyclopédie (1751-1766)

Samuel Adams photo

“If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.”

Samuel Adams (1722–1803) American statesman, Massachusetts governor, and political philosopher

The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
Context: Government was instituted for the purposes of common defence … In short, it is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men … to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defence of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property. If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.

Thomas Paine photo
David O. McKay photo
Baltasar Gracián photo

“Freedom is more precious than the gift that makes us lose it.”

Más preciosa es la libertad que la dádiva, porque se pierde.
Maxim 286
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

George W. Bush photo
Thomas Paine photo
John F. Kennedy photo

“Those whom nature has so joined together, let no man put asunder.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Address by the President at a Luncheon Given in His Honor by President Lopez Matcos (29 June 1962) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=8741&st=&st1=<!-- Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project -->
1962
Context: While geography has made us neighbors, tradition has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies — in a vast Alianza para el Progreso. Those whom nature has so joined together, let no man put asunder.

Related topics