Inspirational Jewish Quotes & Sayings

Never measure literature by accounting statistics. A quarter of working authors earn less than $1,000. — Rita Mae Brown

Once the light of our awareness is cast on any darkness, then it cannot hide and it cannot remain. Such is the law of consciousness. — Marianne Williamson

We've got to reach everyone who is left on the west coast. I think Alaska and Hawaii are, unfortunately, on their own at this point." Conner snorted. "I've been to Alaska; don't worry about them. They know how to take care of themselves. — Sarah Jaune

All you need now is to stand at the window and let your rhythmical sense open and shut, open and shut, boldly and freely, until one thing melts in another, until the taxis are dancing with the daffodils, until a whole has been made from all these separate fragments. — Virginia Woolf

There is an important erotic element in A Thousand and One Nights, which is one of the keys to understanding the Orient. — Tahar Ben Jelloun

Slowly, God is opening my eyes to needs all around me. In Scripture, God revisits this issue of caring for the poor- an echo that repeats itself from Genesis to Revelation. The Bible acknowledges that the poor will always be part of society, but God takes on their cause. The Mosaic law of the Old Testament is filled with regulations to prevent and eliminate poverty. The poor were given the right to glean- to take produce from the unharvested edges of the fields, a portion of the tithes, and a daily wage. The law prevented permanent slavery by releasing Jewish bondsmen and women on the sabbatical and Jubilee year and forbade charging interest on loans. In one of his most tender acts, God made sure that the poor- the aliens, widows, and orphans- were all invited to the feasts. — Margaret Feinberg

Acceptance is the key to everything. — Michael J. Fox

The Jewish sages also tell us that God dances when His children defeat Him in argument, when they stand on their feet and use their minds. So questions like Anne's are worth asking. To ask them is a very fine kind of human behavior. If we keep demanding that God yield up His answers, perhaps some day we will understand them. And then we will be something more than clever apes, and we shall dance with God. — Mary Doria Russell

That's what being Jewish is: summoning the means to question who you are and how you have behaved. Have you remained alight in the darkness of cruel wishes,..? Have you forgiven? Have you lived up to the standards of your one and only heart? — Emily Franklin

Our society on a whole is trained to see young women. There are proportionally far more of them on magazine covers, on TV, and in films than int the actual population. As a result, we have a citizenry taught to see the young and ignore the not-so-young. It isn't conscious; it's Pavlovian. (13) — Victoria Moran

Given that there is every indication I'll be checking the single box on all official forms from now until I'm dead, hopefully at the ripe old age of 98 like Grandma Sanders, an unreasonable number of cats seems to be the next logical step in my life. — Lindsey Stuffel

If not you, then who? If not now, when? — Hillel First- Century Jewish Scholar

Our favorite people and our favorite stories become so not by any inherent virtue, but because they illustrate something deep in the grain, something unadmitted. — Joan Didion

Brutality goes hand in hand with orthodoxy, be it Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Atheistic or any other. — Abhijit Naskar

I embrace the idea that I'm an entertainer. — Wayne Coyne

The great heroes of other ancient cultures were strong and clever and virtuous, but the great Jewish heroes copulated with slaves (Abraham), showed they were willing to allow others to have sex with their wives (also Abraham), cheated their brothers, seduced their in-laws, murdered, started civil wars through terrible family decisions, yet somehow-through a mixture of humility, near-insanity, and good fortune-served as conduits of God's action in the world. — William McDavid

A movie is just like a work of art or a book or a piece of music. The intent of its maker is one thing, but its interpretation by an audience is something else. I don't stop at what the filmmaker wanted to do. — Wesley Morris

To die,
so young to die.
No, no, not I,
I love the warm sunny skies,
light, song, shining eyes,
I want no war, no battle cry,
No, no, not I. — Hannah Senesh

Today a great shot for freedom was heard. I think it stands a chance of being heard forever. It marls a turning point in the history of the Jewish people. The beginning of the return to a statues of dignity we have not known for two thousand years. Yes, today was the first step back. My battle is done. Now I turn the command over to the soldiers. — Leon Uris

I was cursed with the pessimism of both the Russians and the Jews two of the gloomiest tribes in the world. Still if there wasn't greatness in me maybe I had the talent to recognize it in others even in the most irritating others. — David Benioff

It is an old complaint about the practice of medicine that it inures you to the idea of death. But when medicine inures you to the idea of life, to survival, then it has failed utterly. — Siddhartha Mukherjee

If God never gave me one more thing in my life, then you, right now, would be enough. You are my Dayeinu — S. Khubiar

Black and white come together.
Brown and blue come to gather.
Boys and girls come with love.
Straight and gay come as a dove.
Jewish and Muslim, open your mind.
Christian and Hindu, be very kind.
Sikh and Buddist come with the sun.
All children, let's have some fun.
We are your children; we are the future.
Let us love and trust each other.
Let not the gun, let not the shored,
But let peace and love win this world. — Debasish Mridha

That is the way we decided to talk, free and easy, two young men discussing a boxing match. That was the only way to talk. You couldn't let too much truth seep into your conversation, you couldn't admit with your mouth what your eyes had seen. If you opened the door even a centimeter, you would smell the rot outside and hear the screams. You did not open the door. You kept your mind on the tasks of the day, the hunt for food and water and something to burn, and you saved the rest for the end of the war. — David Benioff

It took just an ordinary stick to free the Jewish people. — Euginia Herlihy