“The most fatal trap into which thinking may fall is the equation of existence and expediency.”

—  Abraham Joshua Heschel

Source: Who Is Man? (1965), Ch. 5<!-- Existence and expediency, p. 85 -->
Context: Man is naturally self-centered and he is inclined to regard expediency as the supreme standard for what is right and wrong. However, we must not convert an inclination into an axiom that just as man's perceptions cannot operate outside time and space, so his motivations cannot operate outside expediency; that man can never transcend his own self. The most fatal trap into which thinking may fall is the equation of existence and expediency.

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Abraham Joshua Heschel photo
Abraham Joshua Heschel 130
Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi 1907–1972

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