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Jonathan Sacks

58 quotes

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (1948–2020) was a British Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, and author who served as Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom from 1991 to 2013. A prolific writer and public intellectual, Sacks addressed themes of faith, morality, and the challenges of living in a diverse society with warmth, clarity, and intellectual rigor.

“Much can and must be done by governments, but they cannot of themselves change lives.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Change

All Quotes by Jonathan Sacks

“In virtually every Western society in the 1960s there was a moral revolution, an abandonment of its entire traditional ethic of self-restraint.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Society

“Since the 18th century, many Western intellectuals have predicted religion's imminent demise.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Religion

“A perfect storm is in the making: financial uncertainty, economic downturn, government cuts, rising unemployment and a future that looks less clear the more we try to fathom it.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Future

“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.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Freedom

“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.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Food

“Jews survived all the defeats, expulsions, persecutions and pogroms, the centuries in which they were regarded as a pariah people, even the Holocaust itself, because they never gave up the faith that one day they would be free to live as Jews without fear.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Faith

“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

Society

“Food prices are often kept artificially high. The result is that the Millennium Development Goals set out by the United Nations at the start of the new millennium are not being reached. Fine words have not yet been turned into deeds.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Food

“While everyone else is thinking about economics and politics, executive salaries and the future of the euro, do the opposite, even if it's hard. Invest in the spirit.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Future

“The message of Passover remains as powerful as ever. Freedom is won not on the battlefield but in the classroom and the home. Teach your children the history of freedom if you want them never to lose it.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Freedom

“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.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Business

“We do not always appreciate the role the Queen has played in one of the most significant changes in the past 60 years: the transformation of Britain into a multi-ethnic, multi-faith society. No one does interfaith better than the Royal family, and it starts with the Queen herself.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Family

“We from every religion feel comfortable in Britain because there is a host. The Church of England is a good host, it has been a major force in shaping England into such a tolerant society.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Religion

“Religion survives because it answers three questions that every reflective person must ask. Who am I? Why am I here? How then shall I live?”

— Jonathan Sacks

Religion

“A survey carried out across the U.S. between 2004 and 2006 showed that frequent church- or synagogue-goers are more likely to give money to charity.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Money

“The faith religious believers have in God is small compared to the faith people put in politicians, knowing how many times they have been disappointed in the past but still insisting that this time it will be different.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Faith

“The royals - all of them, especially Prince Philip and Prince Charles - have done outstanding work with the faith communities.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Faith

“Part of the beauty of Judaism, and surely this is so for other faiths also, is that it gently restores control over time. Three times a day we stop what we are doing and turn to God in prayer. We recover perspective. We inhale a deep breath of eternity.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Beauty

“In the post-enlightenment Europe of the 19th century the highest authority was no longer the Church. Instead it was science. Thus was born racial anti-Semitism, based on two disciplines regarded as science in their day - the 'scientific study of race' and the Social Darwinism of Herbert Spencer and Ernst Haeckel.”

— Jonathan Sacks

Science

“We need to rediscover the idea of the common good and work together to build a home.”

— Jonathan Sacks

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