Only the idea of God gives me the confidence that morality will become reality on earth. And because I cannot live without this confidence, I cannot … - Hermann Cohen

In this light the God who appears to me is the comforter of the poor and their avenger in world history. This avenger of the poor is the God I love.

Love of God implies love of religion. And religion exemplifies that creative spirit of God which is at work in history as well as in the mind of man. Thus, one ought to love any religion, that is, religion as such, and in any form—as a manifestation of the moral spirit, the divine spirit of mankind.

In the poor man I see humanity. I can't think of humanity without feeling sympathy for him, without feeling love for him. It is not the physical universe, but rather the moral universe, the social existence of mankind, that I must think and love, if my thought of God is to be called love.