Cohen Quotes & Sayings

I love talking to all the kids, and have enjoyed the enthusiasm and response from their teachers as well. — Scott Cohen

Less rules, more intuition. — Alan Cohen

It is not selfish to be happy. It is your highest purpose. Your joy is the greatest contribution you can make to life on the planet. A heart at peace with its owner blesses everyone it touches. — Alan Cohen

Focus on the highest, clearest, and most meaningful teaching you can find, and let all else go. — Alan Cohen

Whether you're conducting phone interviews or simply need to hear yourself think, privacy is an extremely important variable in the writing life. — Sage Cohen

If you fear looking at your true self, you'll find many ways to distract yourself from it. Busyness, drama, and addictions are ways of avoiding facing yourself. To find the peace you seek, stop running and just he. Get to know who you really are. Remember the wholeness you felt before you joined the rush to nowhere. Then you'll recognize yourself through the eyes of love, and everything will be different. — Alan Cohen

It is a truism, easily forgotten, that the West, in its modern phase, has not stood still. Also easily forgotten is the fact that "the West" is a relative concept only. Without an "East" or a "non-West" to compare it with, it would quite simply not exist; there would be no word for it in our vocabulary. If the concept of the West did not exist, of course, the spatial variations within the geographical area now subsumed under "the West" would loom larger in our minds. The difference between France and America might seem just as great as those between China and the West. — Paul A. Cohen

If you know only one language, you're a prisoner, stuck in the tyranny of that one language. — Andrew Cohen

String Reprise / Treaty

I wish there was a treaty we could sign
It's over now, the water and the wine
We were broken then but now we're borderline
And I wish there was a treaty,
I wish there was a treaty between your love and mine — Leonard Cohen

Never trust a skinny ice cream man. — Ben Cohen

When things get really bad, just raise your glass and stamp your feet and do a little jig. That's about all you can do. — Leonard Cohen

My last thought before falling asleep last night was a realisation that I was falling in love with Andrew.
Well, not me exactly. My stupid, traitorous heart. — N.R. Walker

Puberty was the main culprit in ending my acting career. I went from being kind of this chunky little kid to looking different, and I was really bummed because I loved acting. — Jeff Cohen

When it all comes down to dust I will kill you if I must , I will help you if I can. When it all comes down to dust I will help you if I must, I will kill you if I can. — Leonard Cohen

It's the notion that there is no perfection - that this is a broken world and we live with broken hearts and broken lives but still that is no alibi for anything. On the contrary, you have to stand up and say hallelujah under those circumstances. — Leonard Cohen

Others [terrorists] are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves — William Cohen

Being with people who don't understand is worse than being alone with her grief. — Kerry Cohen Hoffmann

Busyness is not a reason for not getting other things done. It is an excuse for not claiming your true priorities. — Alan Cohen

I know she is coming
I know she will look
And that is the longing
And this is the book. — Leonard Cohen

When passion dies
friendship hovers round our flesh like flies — Leonard Cohen

There is a religious hallelujah, but there are many other ones[ ... ] When one looks at the world, there's only one thing to say, and it's hallelujah. That's the way it is. — Leonard Cohen

We state it with a pure heart and full confidence that no Jew has ever thought and is not thinking now in any way whatsoever of impinging on Muslim rights and their holy places. — Hillel Cohen

GIFT
You tell me that silence
is nearer to peace than poems
but if for my gift
I brought you silence
(for I know silence)
you would say
This is not silence
this is another poem
and you would hand it back to me — Leonard Cohen

Even if someone is already in your market space, ask yourself whether you can approach it from a different angle and thereby secure your own customer base. — Benjamin Cohen

A kite is a victim you are sure of.
You love it because it pulls
gentle enough to call you master,
strong enough to call you fool;
because it lives
like a desperate trained falcon
in the high sweet air,
and you can always haul it down
to tame it in your drawer.
A kite is a fish you have already caught
in a pool where no fish come,
so you play him carefully and long,
and hope he won't give up,
or the wind die down.
A kite is the last poem you've written
so you give it to the wind,
but you don't let it go
until someone finds you
something else to do. — Leonard Cohen

Can a little speck in the vast universe truly address the Infinite? The answer is that Prayer is precisely what converts that little speck into an entity of inestimable and cosmic significance. — Jeff Cohen

There is a war between the ones who say there is a war and the ones who say there isn't. — Leonard Cohen

You are locked into your suffering and your pleasures are the seal. — Leonard Cohen

There is nothing like watching the woman you are in love with make a baby, make a miracle! It is one hell of a ride, and I am only seven months in. Time is flying by, but I am taking it all in. It is the most important thing that I have ever been a part of in my life. — Matt Cohen

The problem is Jewish-American fiction that always ends with assimilation back into the community. — Joshua Cohen

I cried for a little while, taking a kind of melancholy delight in my own tears, and then I fell asleep. — Barbara Cohen

Congress was just a gray repository that got its OS replaced with each election. — Joshua Cohen

We had all commenced that thrusting and parrying that always goes on when you meet new people. How I hated those games. I wondered if they went on forever. Did you ever grow up enough not to have to jockey for position? Could you ever just say, 'Hi, I'm Rachel Gold. I like to read and eat. Who are you? — Barbara Cohen

We used to play music for fun. Much more than now. Now nobody picks up a guitar unless they're paid for it. — Leonard Cohen

All logic texts are divided into two parts. In the first part, on deductible logic, the fallacies are explained; in the second part, on inductive logic, they are committed. — Morris Raphael Cohen

When you can laugh about something, you know it is healed. — Alan Cohen

The night before I compete, I like to have steak. Meat is especially important for female athletes because it provides them with the nutrients they need to perform at their best. — Sasha Cohen

The tallest adults are the ones who had the most childhood and adolescent growth before puberty started; puberty typically tacks on a standard nine inches, and then the game's over. "The children who are going to be the biggest adults are those who are tall by age one or two, and have a relatively late puberty," says Rosenfeld. — Arianne Cohen

The difference between famous creators and struggling artists is that the creators know that improving the lives of others deserves the highest reward. — Alan Cohen

I have been too fond of stories. — Leah Hager Cohen

You are destined to become the peer of those you most respect because the greatness you perceive in them is your own. — Alan Cohen

Antisemitism is unique among religious hatreds. It is a racist conspiracy theory fashioned for the needs of messianic and brutal rulers, as dictators from the Tsars to the Islamists via the Nazis have shown. Many other alleged religious 'hatreds' are not hatreds in the true sense. If I criticise Islamic, Orthodox Jewish or Catholic attitudes towards women, for instance, and I'm accused of being a bigot, I shrug and say it is not bigoted to oppose bigotry. — Nick Cohen

Those who first introduced compulsory education into American life knew exactly why children should go to school and learn to read: to save their souls ... Consistent with this goal, the first book written and printed for children in America was titled Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in either England, drawn from the Breasts of both Testaments for their Souls' Nourishment. — Dorothy H Cohen

I've been gay since the day I was born. — Andy Cohen

I kissed him softly and left my lips pressed to his for a few beats of my heart. — N.R. Walker

I can remember how rude I could be at times to journalists and people phoning up for advice. — Benjamin Cohen

The best way to be more like me is to be more like you, — Alan Cohen

E-books, which made their debut in the 1990s, cut costs even more for both consumer and producer, though as the Internet expanded, those roles became confused. — Joshua Cohen

We have to be willing to give up all the injustices of the past that did exist - and that do exist right now. When we become interested in liberation, we then become interested in that which transcends time. — Andrew Cohen

Parents must begin to discover their children as individuals of developing tastes and views and so help them be, and see, themselves as thinking, feeling people. It is far too easy for a middle-years child to absorb an over-simplified picture of himself as a sloppy, unreliable, careless, irresponsible, lazy creature and not much more
an attitude toward himself he will carry far beyond these years. — Dorothy H Cohen

Israel, and you who call yourself Israel, the Church that calls itself Israel, and the revolt that calls itself Israel, and every nation chosen to be a nation - none of these lands is yours, all of you are thieves of holiness, all of you at war with Mercy. — Leonard Cohen

The first star tonight insanely high, virgin, calm.
I have one hour of peace before the documented planets burn me down. — Leonard Cohen

The poor stay poor, the rich get rich / Thats how it goes / Everybody knows. — Leonard Cohen

When facing terrorism, especially in the wake of awful events, there is a tendency to despair, to see in the battle a problem without a solution. — Rich Cohen

I went to Coachella once, and it was only to go see Leonard Cohen. I got in the car and sat through all the crazy traffic in L.A. to get there - instead of a two hour drive, it takes, like, six hours. Then I watched his set and turned around and left. I just so wanted to see him perform in the desert. — Hannah Simone

The miracle of Grenada is how quickly the Cuban workers beat their plowshares into Soviet AK-47s. — William Cohen

You lose your grip, and then you slip into the Masterpiece. — Leonard Cohen

Dictators are ludicrous characters, and, you know, in my career and in my life, I've always enjoyed sort of inhabiting these ludicrous, larger-than-life characters that somehow exist in the real world. — Sacha Baron Cohen

It is a pity that so many Americans today think of the Indian as a romantic or comic figure in American history without contemporary significance. In fact, the Indian plays much the same role in our society that the Jews played in Germany. Like the miner's canary, the Indian marks the shift from fresh air to poison gas in our political atmosphere; and our treatment of Indians, even more than our treatment of other minorities, reflects the rise and fall in our democratic faith. — Felix S. Cohen

It's hard to hold the hand of anyone who is reaching for the sky just to surrender — Leonard Cohen

Maybe there's a god above but the only thing I learned from love was how to shoot at somebody who outdrew you. — Leonard Cohen

I think it would be bad for culture and the art if artists and people who develop the apparatus to support those artists don't get paid. — Lyor Cohen

If you are money, then, when you die, you will be spent. — Rich Cohen

Taxpayers have spent more than $200 billion in the last decade on computer systems that are antiquated, incompatible, and not doing the job. — William Cohen

Everyone I meet now is at least ten years younger than me. I feel like Rip van Winkle with a bald spot. — Jaffe Cohen

Government is the enemy until you need a friend. — William Cohen

Don't listen to me. I'm not a politician. I know nothing about politics. But people are cheering when something very bad happens to him [Donald Trump]. So that's got to make you think before voting for him. — Sacha Baron Cohen

All of Iowa must be campuses and crops. — Joshua Cohen

Any startling piece of work has a subversive element in it, a delicious element often. Subversion is only disagreeable when it manifests in political or social activity. — Leonard Cohen

I don't think any book of mine will ever come as close to pure fantasy as 'A Heaven of Others.' I'll never again set a book in a world or after-world in which it's impossible to buy a cup of coffee or take an undisturbed afternoon nap. — Joshua Cohen

A heavy burden lifted from my soul,
I heard that love was out of my control. — Leonard Cohen

I am absolutely convinced that there are weapons ... I saw evidence back in 1998 when we would see the inspectors being barred from gaining entry into a warehouse for three hours with trucks rolling up and then moving those trucks out. — William Cohen

Everything will line up perfectly when knowing and living the truth becomes more important then proving anything to anyone — Alan Cohen

I have been incredibly fortunate to be able to work with good directors and for me it's not really a plan each time I'm on a set with one of them; I think about what I can learn from them because I'm very aware that my filmmaking skills are very modest. — Sacha Baron Cohen

We are ugly but we have the music. — Leonard Cohen

I come from an intense family - like, we're just intense people. Not bad people or anything, we are just very intense, and I have just always felt like people who weren't like that were just a kind of hiding it, like when I was really young in high school. — Emory Cohen

...And everything depends upon how near you sleep to me. — Leonard Cohen

If you look at the people who make up the Bravo landscape from Jeff Lewis to Rachel Zoe and Padma Lakshmi and Tabatha Coffey and the 'Millionaire Matchmaker,' these are very strong personalities that people love to watch and that you ... don't see anywhere else. — Andy Cohen

The purpose of prayer is not to change God's mind, which always knows your wholeness and your deservingness. The purpose of prayer is to change your mind so you can see through the eyes of God. — Alan Cohen

Rejection hurts so much because we take it as a damning judgement passed not merely on our physical appeal but on our entire selves, and by extension (at this stage we're crying into our pillow, as something by Bach or Leonard Cohen plays on the stereo) on our very right to exist. 2. — Alain De Botton

At this moment, life is trying to love you and give to you in a million wonderful ways. When you say Yes, you allow love to flow, which is the greatest gift you can give yourself and the universe ... What do you want that you could be more open to receiving? — Alan Cohen

In My Secret Life"
"I saw you this morning,
you were moving so fast.
Can't seem to loosen my grip
On the past.
And I miss you so much,
there's no one in sight.
And we're still making love
In my secret life.
I smile when I am angry,
I cheat and I lie,
I do what I have to do
to get by,
In my secret life. — Leonard Cohen

I cannot understand why my arm is not a lilac tree. — Leonard Cohen

The ability to know one's limitations, to recognize the bounds of one's own comprehension - this is a kind of knowing that approaches wisdom. — Leah Hager Cohen

By no amount of reasoning can we altogether eliminate all contingency from our world. Moreover, pure speculation alone will not enable us to get a determinate picture of the existing world. We must eliminate some of the conflicting possibilities, and this can be brought about only by experiment and observation. — Morris Raphael Cohen

We can look at any experience in two ways: through the eyes of lack, or the eyes of plenty. Fear sees limits, while love sees possibilities. Each attitude will be justified by the belief system you cherish. Change your allegiance from fear to love, and love will sustain you wherever you walk. — Alan Cohen

Regularity in Nature is not proof of the control of Nature by a Divine intelligence; it is rather the reverse. If something- call it matter, or ether, or x - exists, it must operate in accordance with its innate qualities; and so long as this x remains uncontrolled, its manifestations will continue unchallenged- in other words, there will be order. The same causes, the same results. That is the manifest signs of a natural order that knows nothing of God. — Chapman Cohen

English, unlike Hebrew, is read from left to right - as are clocks. The concepts of clockwise and counterclockwise are universal, irrespective of alphabet. — Joshua Cohen

I would like to remind the management that the drinks are watered and the hat-check girl has syphilis and the band is composed of former ss monsters However since it is new year's eve and i have lip cancer i will place my paper hat on my concussion and dance — Leonard Cohen

I listen to the radio and I like all kinds of music, you know, but I like to hear from people who have been there. Hank Williams has been there. — Leonard Cohen

I've always been discreet - more than discreet. When a friend calls, and I'm doing something innocuous like cooking dinner, I tell them I'm reading or running out to the movies. It's the surveillance I can't stand. — Joshua Cohen

Upgrade your past by seeing it with appreciation. — Alan Cohen

Most men are very attached to the idea of being male, and usually experience a lot of fear and insecurity around the idea of being a man. Most women are very identified with their gender, and also experience a tremendous amount of fear and insecurity. — Andrew Cohen

ISRAEL AND THE BOMB Avner Cohen Columbia University Press NEW YORK — Avner Cohen

If I really knew how to do good storytelling, I would be a writer. Mystery is not a huge part of it ... It's tension, it's relationships. I think it's a struggle. — Scott Cohen

I didn't want to write for pay. I wanted to be paid for what I write. — Leonard Cohen

With BitTorrent, the cat's out of the bag. — Bram Cohen

What really put me over the top was receiving a packet of hundreds of hand-written thank you notes, telling me how the kids were inspired and excited about the [Cube] project. — Scott Cohen

God is a frequency. Stay tuned. — Alan Cohen

Baldwin told the story again and again of standing on Broadway and being told by Delaney to look down. Delaney asked him what he saw, and Baldwin said a puddle. Delaney said, 'Look again,' and then Baldwin saw the reflections of the buildings, distorted and radiant in the oil on the puddle. He taught me to see, Baldwin said, and that 'what one cannot or will not see, says something about you. — Rachel Cohen