Dazzled by the brilliant achievements of the intellect in science and technique, we have been deluded into believing that we are the masters of the earth and our will the ultimate judge of what is right and wrong. However, the universe is not a waif and life is not a derelict. Man is neither the lord of the universe nor even the master of his own destiny. Our life is not our own property but a possession of God. And it is this divine ownership that makes life a  sacred thing.

A.J.Heschel, Faith, in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, FS&G, p. 328, first published in 1944