Isaac Bashevis Singer Quotes - Page 4

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• If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet... [at least for your own situation. Blind optimism is just as foolish. The solution is a rigorously balanced, rational outlook.]

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Optimism, Chance, Anticipation

  7 Copy quote

• In our time, when the literature for adults is deteriorating, good books for children are the only hope, the only refuge.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Children, Book, Adults

  7 Copy quote

• I get up every morning with a desire to do some creative work. This desire is made of the same stuff as the sexual desire, the desire to make money, or any other desire.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Morning, Creative, Desire

  10 Copy quote

• There is a quiet humor in Yiddish and a gratitude for every day of life, every crumb of success, each encounter of love... In a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language of us all, the idiom of a frightened and hopeful humanity.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Wise, Gratitude, Humble

  Isaac Bashevis Singer, Joseph C. Landis (1986). “Aspects of I.B. Singer”

  6 Copy quote

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

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Writing

  "Isaac Bashevis Singer Talks …About Everything". The New York Times Interview, www.nytimes.com. November 26, 1978.

  67 Copy quote

• The truth is that what the great religions preached, the Yiddish-speaking people of the ghettos practiced day in and day out. They were the people of The Book in the truest sense of the word. They knew of no greater joy than the study of man and human relations, which they called Torah, Talmud, Mussar, Cabala.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Book, Ghetto, Men

  Isaac Bashevis Singer, Joseph C. Landis (1986). “Aspects of I.B. Singer”

  8 Copy quote

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

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Motivational, Nature, Animal

  26 Copy quote

• Each soul must accomplish its task, or it would not have been sent here.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Soul, Tasks, Purpose

  6 Copy quote

• No lepidopterist's collection in the entire world...full if iridescent wings, is worth the life of a single butterfly.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Butterfly, Wings, World

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Children, Believe, Book

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Religious, Philosophical, Perspective

  Isaac Bashevis Singer's Nobel Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 8, 1978.

  7 Copy quote

• When a human being kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Animal, Vegetarianism, Justice

  25 Copy quote

• The characters have their own lives and their own logic, and you have to act accordingly.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Character, Logic

  Isaac Bashevis Singer, Grace Farrell (1992). “Isaac Bashevis Singer: Conversations”, p.77, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  5 Copy quote

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

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Life, Writing, Men

  13 Copy quote

• To me the Yiddish language and the conduct of those who spoke it are identical.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Language, Spokes, Yiddish

  Isaac Bashevis Singer, Joseph C. Landis (1986). “Aspects of I.B. Singer”

  8 Copy quote

• I was brought up to believe in free will. 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 clichés and the idolatries of the human mind, I still cling to some truths which I think all of us might accept some day.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Lying, Believe, Thinking

  Isaac Bashevis Singer, Joseph C. Landis (1986). “Aspects of I.B. Singer”

  5 Copy quote

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

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Children, Book, Writing

  Isaac Bashevis Singer (1971). “A Certain Bridge: Isaac Bashevis Singer on Literature and Life”

  10 Copy quote

• When a writer tries to explain too much, he's out of time before he begins.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Writing, Trying, Too Much

  8 Copy quote

• When we're trying to decide whether a leader is a good leader or a bad one, the question to ask is: 'Is he with the Ten Commandments or is he against them?' Then you can determine if the leader is a true messiah or another Stalin.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Leader, Trying, Determine

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Night, Years, Next Year

  Isaac Bashevis Singer, Grace Farrell (1992). “Isaac Bashevis Singer: Conversations”, p.167, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  5 Copy quote

• I have heard from my father and mother all the answers that faith in God could offer to those who doubt and search for the truth. In our home and in many other homes the eternal questions were more actual than the latest news in the Yiddish newspaper. In spite of all the disenchantments and all my skepticism I believe that the nations can learn much from those Jews, their way of thinking, their way of bringing up children, their finding happiness where others see nothing but misery and humiliation.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Mother, Children, Father

  Isaac Bashevis Singer, Joseph C. Landis (1986). “Aspects of I.B. Singer”

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Men, Animal, Voice

  Preface to "Food for the Spirit: Vegetarianism and the World Religions" by Steven Rosen, New York: Bala Books, 1987.

  7 Copy quote

• In relation to them (animals), all people are Nazis for the animals, it is an eternal Treblinka.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Animal, People, Nazi

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• Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Animal, Vegetarianism, Justice

  "Animal life in Jewish tradition: attitudes and relationships". Book by Elijah Judah Schochet, p. 297, 1984.

  18 Copy quote

• 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.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Vegetarianism, Voice, Vegan

  10 Copy quote

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