69 Isaac Bashevis Singer Quotes

Isaac Bashevis Singer quotes

1. We must believe in free will - we have no choice.

2. Life is God's novel. Let him write it.

3. I am thankful, of course, for the prize and thankful to God for each story, each idea, each word, each day.

4. When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself.

5. I don't invent characters because the Almightly has already invented millions: Just like experts at fingerprints do not create fingerprints but learn how to read them.

6. The analysis of character is the highest human entertainment.

7. A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise: Because that is how life is - full of surprises.

8. The Jewish people have been in exile for 2,000 years; they have lived in hundreds of countries, spoken hundreds of languages and still they kept their old language, Hebrew. They kept their Aramaic, later their Yiddish; they kept their books; they kept their faith.

9. Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.

10. Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge.

11. Children don't read to find their identity, to free themselves from guilt, to quench the thirst for rebellion or to get rid of alienation. They have no use for psychology... They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff... When a book is boring, they yawn openly. They don't expect their writer to redeem humanity, but leave to adults such childish illusions.

12. When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer.

13. We write not only for children but also for their parents. They, too, are serious children.

14. Take three quarts of duck's milk...

15. If Moses had been paid newspaper rates for the Ten Commandments, he might have written the Two Thousand Commandments.

16. I started to 'write' even before I knew the alphabet. I would dip a pen in ink and scribble. I also liked to draw - horses, houses, dogs. The Sabbath was an ordeal for me, because it is forbidden to write on that day.

17. The storyteller and poet of our time, as in any other time, must be an entertainer of the spirit in the full sense of the word, not just a preacher of social or political ideals. There is no paradise for bored readers and no excuse for tedious literature that does not intrigue the reader, uplift him, give him the joy and the escape that true art always grants. Nevertheless, it is also true that the serious writer of our time must be deeply concerned about the problems of his generation. He cannot but see that the power of religion, especially belief in revelation, is weaker today than it was in any other epoch in human history. More and more children grow up without faith in God, without belief in reward and punishment, in the immortality of the soul and even in the validity of ethics. The genuine writer cannot ignore the fact that the family is losing its spiritual foundation.

18. Not only has our generation lost faith in Providence but also in man himself, in his institutions and often in those who are nearest to him. In their despair a number of those who no longer have confidence in the leadership of our society look up to the writer, the master of words. They hope against hope that the man of talent and sensitivity can perhaps rescue civilization. Maybe there is a spark of the prophet in the artist after all.

19. I have many times resigned myself to never finding a true way out. But a new hope always emerges telling me that it is not yet too late for all of us to take stock and make a decision. I was brought up to believe in free will.

20. Although I came to doubt all revelation, I can never accept the idea that the Universe is a physical or chemical accident, a result of blind evolution. Even though I learned to recognize the lies, the cliches and the idolatries of the human mind, I still cling to some truths which I think all of us might accept some day. There must be a way for man to attain all possible pleasures, all the powers and knowledge that nature can grant him, and still serve God - a God who speaks in deeds, not in words, and whose vocabulary is the Cosmos.

21. I am not ashamed to admit that I belong to those who fantasize that literature is capable of bringing new horizons and new perspectives - philosophical, religious, aesthetical and even social. In the history of old Jewish literature there was never any basic difference between the poet and the prophet. Our ancient poetry often became law and a way of life.

22. Strange as these words may sound I often play with the idea that when all the social theories collapse and wars and revolutions leave humanity in utter gloom, the poet - whom Plato banned from his Republic - may rise up to save us all.

23. One can find in the Yiddish tongue and in the Yiddish spirit expressions of pious joy, lust for life, longing for the Messiah, patience and deep appreciation of human individuality. There is a quiet humor in Yiddish and a gratitude for every day of life, every crumb of success, each encounter of love. The Yiddish mentality is not haughty. It does not take victory for granted. It does not demand and command but it muddles through, sneaks by, smuggles itself amidst the powers of destruction, knowing somewhere that God's plan for Creation is still at the very beginning.

24. There are some who call Yiddish a dead language, but so was Hebrew called for two thousand years. It has been revived in our time in a most remarkable, almost miraculous way. Aramaic was certainly a dead language for centuries but then it brought to light the Zohar, a work of mysticism of sublime value.

25. Yiddish has not yet said its last word. It contains treasures that have not been revealed to the eyes of the world. It was the tongue of martyrs and saints, of dreamers and Cabalists - rich in humor and in memories that mankind may never forget. In a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language of us all, the idiom of frightened and hopeful Humanity.

26. A good writer is basically a story-teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.

27. A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise. Because that is how life is-full of surprises.

28. Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.

29. For those who are willing to make an effort, great miracles and wonderful treasures are in store.

30. God sends burdens, and shoulders, too.

31. How can we speak of right and justice if we take an innocent creature and shed its blood? How can we pray to God for mercy if we ourselves have no mercy?

32. I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.

33. If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet.

34. It seems that the analysis of character is the highest human entertainment. And literature does it, unlike gossip, without mentioning real names.

35. Kindness, I've discovered, is everything in life.

36. Man cannot live without self-control

37. Originality is not seen in single words or even in sentences. Originality is the sum total of a man's thinking or his writing.

38. People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times.

39. Sometimes love is stronger than a man's convictions.

40. The greatness of art is not to find what is common but what is unique.

41. The New England conscience doesn't keep you from doing what you shouldn't - it just keeps you from enjoying it.

42. The second half of the twentieth century is a complete flop.

43. The very essence of literature is the war between emotion and intellect, between life and death. When literature becomes too intellectual - when it begins to ignore the passions, the emotions - it becomes sterile, silly, and actually without substance.

44. The wastebasket is a writer's best friend.

45. There is great treasure there behind our skull and this is true about all of us. This little treasure has great, great powers, and I would say we only have learnt a very, very small part of what it can do.

46. There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is.

47. We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions.

48. What nature delivers to us is never stale. Because what nature creates has eternity in it.

49. Whatever doesn't really happen is dreamed at night. It happens to one if it doesn't happen to another, tomorrow if not today, or a century hence if not next year.

1. The waste basket is the writer's best friend.

2. Every body resisted (the slaughterer) in its own fashion, tried to escape and seemed to argue with the Creator to its last breath.

3. As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.

4. What nature creates has eternity in it.

5. Men want all women to lie down as whores and get up as virgins.

6. A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise... Because this is how life is full of surprises.

7. No doubt the world is entirely an imaginary world, but it is only once removed from the true world.

8. It is a general rule that when the grain of truth cannot be found, men will swallow great helpings of falsehood.

9. As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behaviour towards creatures, all men were Nazis. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right.

10. What's the good of not believing? Today it's your wife you don't believe; tomorrow it's God Himself you won't take stock in.

11. There is a permanent amnesia planted in us, which just as we keep forgetting our dreams, we sometimes keep on forgetting our reality.

12. Children read books, not reviews. They don't give a hoot about critics.

13. The soul never dies and the body is never really alive.

14. Children have no use for psychology. They detest sociology. They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff. When a book is boring, they yawn openly. They don't expect their writer to redeem humanity, but leave to adults such childish allusions.

15. When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It's unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give. It is inconsistent. I can never accept inconsistency or injustice. Even if it comes from God. If there would come a voice from God saying, "I'm against vegetarianism!" I would say, "Well, I am for it!" This is how strongly I feel in this regard.

16. God gave us so many emotions, and so many strong ones. Every human being, even if he is an idiot, is a millionaire in emotions.

17. The more you see what other people do, the more you learn about yourself.

18. We all play chess with Fate as partner. He makes a move, we make a move. He tries to checkmate us in three moves, we try to prevent it. We know we can't win, but we're driven to give him a good fight.

19. There is a plan to this universe. There is a high intelligence, maybe even a purpose, but it's given to us on the installment plan.

20. When literature becomes overly erudite, it means that interest in the art has gone and curiosity about the artist is what's important. It becomes a kind of idolatry.