Yaakov Quotes & Sayings

A person's authentic nature is a series of shifting, variegated planes that establish themselves as he relates to different people; it is created by and appears within the framework of his interpersonal relationships. — Philip K. Dick

I always eat cake for breakfast — Stampylongnose

Physical strength therefore is one of the first conditions of happiness and even of the existence of nations. — Alexis De Tocqueville

If you're rude for television's sake, it ain't reality TV. — Pete Waterman

Salvation is a word for the divine spaciousness that comes to human beings in all the tight places where their lives are at risk, regardless of how they got there or whether they know God's name. Sometimes it comes as an extended human hand and sometimes as a bolt from the blue, but either way it opens a door in what looked for all the world like a wall. This is the way of life, and God alone knows how it works. — Barbara Brown Taylor

Rabbi Moshe Weinberger of Mesivta Beis Shraga related how his father used to say that on Purim, the handle of the gragger (noisemaker) we spin is beneath the gragger itself, while on Chanukah the handle of the dreidel (four-sided top) we spin is on top. Purim, he expounded, represents human initiative, an "awakening from below," while Chanukah represents Divine intervention, an "awakening from above." On Purim, we stir ourselves with drink, joy, a hearty meal and other activities. On Chanukah, we light a candle that we are not allowed to use for any purpose other than to gaze at its flame. We just sit back and look. We let Hashem take over. We remind ourselves that Hashem is running the show. — Yaakov Astor

Oh, come on, he was twenty-six. And he had poetry on his lips. — Frances Mayes

The progress of science has been amazingly rapid in the last decade; but consider the savants, those exhausted hens. They are certainly not "harmonious" natures: they can merely cackle more than before, because they lay eggs oftener: but the eggs are always smaller, [Pg 64] though their books are bigger. The natural result of it all is the favourite "popularising" of science (or rather its feminising and infantising), the villainous habit of cutting the cloth of science to fit the figure of the "general public. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Weigh the reward of the mitzva against the pleasure of the sin, and also weigh the pleasure of the sin against the punishment it will inevitably bring. Are we getting a good deal by opting for sin? Clearly, we are not. — Yaakov Hillel

Cell phones are so convenient that they're an inconvenience. — Haruki Murakami

chasing silly rose leaves — Rudyard Kipling

It is hard for 2 creative people to work together for that length of time and not fall out. — Jim Sullivan

I feel like I am drowning in memories. Everything is too bright. — Ava Dellaira

Often our bad moments are self-propelled ... And the drama is almost exclusively within our heads and hearts. — Katharine Tynan

As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even once in a lifetime. The ordinary bad hat is always in part a decent fellow. — Colette