Jonathan Sacks quotes

We have no idea where the world is going, except that it's going there very fast. (Jonathan Sacks)
Faith is not a certainty. Faith is the courage to live with uncertainty. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
The twenty-first century is, and will remain, the Age of Insecurity. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
Marriage, sanctified by the bond of fidelity, is the nearest life gets to a work of art. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
If we are to cherish freedom, and to guard it, we must remember what the alternative is: the bread of affliction and the bitter herbs of slavery. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
In Judaism faith means wrestling with God as Jacob once wrestled with an angel... View quote
Jonathan Sacks
The first of the "request" prayers in the daily Amidah is a fractal. It replicates in miniature the structure of the Amidah as a whole. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
Technology gives us power, but it does not and cannot tell us how to use that power. Thanks to technology, we can instantly communicate across the world, but it still doesn't help us know what to say. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holy of holies of Jewish time. It is that rarest of phenomena, a Jewish festival without food. Instead it is a day of fasting and prayer, introspection and self-judgment when, collectively and repeatedly, we confess our sins and pray to be written into God's Book of Life. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
In thinking about religion and society in the 21st century, we should broaden the conversation about faith from doctrinal debates to the larger question of how it might inspire us to strengthen the bonds of belonging that redeem us from our solitude, helping us to construct together a gracious and generous social order. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
Frequent worshippers are also significantly more active citizens. They are more likely to belong to community organizations, especially those concerned with young people, health, arts and leisure, neighborhood and civic groups and professional associations. (Jonathan Sacks)
My Lords, I and the vast majority of the Jewish community, care deeply about the future of the Palestinians. We want Palestinian children, no less than Israeli children, to have a future of peace, prosperity, freedom and hope. Which is why we oppose those who teach Palestinian children to hate those with whom they will one day have to live; who take money given for humanitarian aid and use it to buy weapons and dig tunnels to take the region back to a dark age of barbarism. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
Judaism is the refusal to give way to despair. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
The meaning of the word "true" here is similar to the word Amen said after a blessing. It is an act of affirmation and ratification, reminding us that the Shema is less a prayer than a declaration of faith. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
Values are tapes we play on the Walkman of the mind. Any tune we chooose is fine so long as it does not disturb others. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
A society, or for that matter, a political party, that tolerates antisemitism, that tolerates any hate, has forfeited all moral credibility. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
Make space in your life for the things that matter, for family and friends, love and generosity, fun and joy. Without this, you will burn out in mid-career and wonder where your life went. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
No great achiever - even those who made it seem easy - ever succeeded without hard work. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
While we can remember the past, we cannot write the future. Only our children, the future of our community, can do that. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
Some years ago there was a study to discover the most stressful occupation. It turned out not to be the head of a large business, football manager or prime minister, but rather: bus driver. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
A society in which there are high levels of voluntary activity will simply be a better, happier place than one where there are not. (Jonathan Sacks)
The world we build tomorrow is born in the stories we tell our children today. Politics moves the pieces. Education changes the game. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
We need to rediscover the idea of the common good and work together to build a home. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
True freedom requires the rule of law and justice, and a judicial system in which the rights of some are not secured by the denial of rights to others. View quote
Jonathan Sacks
We believe that what we possess we don't ultimately own. God is merely entrusting it to us. And one of the conditions of that trust is that we share what we have with those who have less. So, if you don't give to people in need, you can hardly call yourself a Jew. Even the most unbelieving Jew knows that. View quote
Jonathan Sacks