Hebrew Quotes

• Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Spiritual, Israel, America

  Johnson, Lyndon B. (1970). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1968-1969”, p.947, Best Books on

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• The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.

  John Adams

  Atheist, Believe, Fate

  John Adams (2015). “The Works of John Adams Vol. 9: Letters and State Papers 1799 - 1811”, p.479, Jazzybee Verlag

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• He was the editor of our paper. He created the publishing house in Hebrew. He was - I wouldn't say the "guru" - but really he was our teacher and a most respected man. I wrote for the paper of the youth movement.

  Shimon Peres

  Teacher, Men, Publishing House

  "Israel's Statesman of Peace". The Academy of Achievement, www.achievement.org. May 2, 2003.

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• I speak fluent Hebrew and even dream in Hebrew when we visit there, once or twice a year.

  Natalie Portman

  Dream, Years, Speak

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• I learned enough Hebrew to stagger through a meaningless ceremony that I scarcely remember.

  David Antin

  Remember, Enough, Ceremony

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• It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more important to understand even the slang of today.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Important, Too Late, Literature

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.167, Simon and Schuster

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• But every great scripture, whether Hebrew, Indian, Persian, or Chinese, apart from its religious value will be found to have some rare and special beauty of its own; and in this respect the original Bible stands very high as a monument of sublime poetry and of artistic prose.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Religious, Chinese, Sublime

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.107, tredition

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• If we wish that the name Israel be not extinguished, then we are in duty bound
  to create something which may serve as a center for our entire people, like the
  heart in an organism, from which the blood will stream into all the arteries of
  the national body and fill it with life.

  Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

  Life, Heart, Israel

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• ...the goal of all spiritual life is to get your ego out of the way - outwit the sucker; dissolve it; shoot it; kill it. Silence the incessant planning, organizing, running, manipulating, possessing, and processing"... "because these activities preclude awareness of the Divine.

  Lawrence Kushner

  Life, God, Running

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• Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world - only to serve the People of Israel,. Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat. That is why gentiles were created.

  Ovadia Yosef

  Hate, Work, Israel

  "Christmas 2015 Brings More Misery, Poverty and Dispossession for Bethlehem and Palestinians" by Raouf Halaby, www.counterpunch.org. December 25, 2015.

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• It's not as if the New Testament writers came along and said, "The culmination of Old Testament books is more books, New Testament books." In some ways they thought instead of the culmination of Old Testament books being Christ himself, the word incarnate as the opening verses of Hebrews 1 put it. In the past God spoke to the fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son and the son is revelation.

  D. A. Carson

  Father, Book, Son

  Source: www.booksataglance.com

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• Hebrew word for "charity" tzedakah, simply means "justice" and as this suggests, for Jews, giving to the poor is no optional extra but an essential part of living a just life.

  Peter Singer

  Mean, Giving, Justice

  Peter Singer (2010). “The Life You Can Save: How to play your part in ending world poverty”, p.21, Pan Macmillan

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• If you teach the Negro that he has accomplished as much good as any other race he will aspire to equality and justice without regard to race. Such an effort would upset the program of the oppressor in Africa and America. Play up before the Negro, then, his crimes and shortcomings. Let him learn to admire the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin and the Teuton. Lead the Negro to detest the man of African blood--to hate himself.

  Carter G. Woodson

  Hate, Latin, Men

  Carter G. Woodson (2006). “The Mis-Education of the Negro”, p.192, Book Tree

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• Hope fills the afflicted soul with such inward joy and consolation, that it can laugh while tears are in the eye, sigh and sing all in a breath; it is called "the rejoicing of hope" (Hebrews 3:6).

  William Gurnall

  Christian, Hope, Laughter

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• There is no word in Hebrew for religion, by the way.

  Elie Wiesel

  Way

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

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• Not now, for the last three thousand years, Hebrew has been penetrated and fertilized by ancient Semitic languages - by Aramaic, by Greek, by Latin, by Arabic, by Yiddish, by Latino, by German, by Russian, by English, I could go on and on. It's very much like English.

  Amos Oz

  Latin, Years, Greek

  "'Everybody comes from somewhere.' An Interview with Writer Amos Oz". Interview with Prashanth Ramakrishna, logger.believermag.com. October 20, 2016.

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• Some devout Christians are among the most fervent advocates of the death penalty, contradicting Jesus Christ and justifying their belief on an erroneous interpretation of Hebrew Scriptures. "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," their most likely response, overlooks the fact that this was promulgated by Moses as a limitation- a prohibition against taking both eyes or all of an offender's teeth in retribution.

  Jimmy Carter

  Christian, Jesus, Eye

  Jimmy Carter (2005). “Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis”, p.82, Simon and Schuster

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• It is a fact that the classics of Yiddish literature are also the classics of the modern Hebrew literature.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Literature, Facts, Modern

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

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• Sublimity is Hebrew by birth.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Birth, Sublimity

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1871). “The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge with an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions”, p.406

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• Let all your preaching be in the most simple and plainest manner; look not to the prince, but to the plain, simple, gross, unlearned people, of which cloth the prince also himself is made. If I, in my preaching, should have regard to Philip Melancthon and other learned doctors, then should I do but little good. I preach in the simplest manner to the unskillful, and that giveth content to all. Hebrew, Greek and Latin I spare until we learned ones come together.

  Martin Luther

  Latin, Simple, Doctors

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• In case any are puzzled by the different translations from which I draw strength and help and delight, it is like this: In studying any object with the microscope we use different lenses and turn the mirror in various ways; each change brings out some new wonder and beauty. So it is for those who are not Greek or Hebrew scholars, and who use the work of scholars to open the meaning of the exhaustible Word-the Bible is richer than any single version can fully show.

  Amy Carmichael

  Mirrors, Greek, Different

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• Hebrew was frozen, like frozen peas, fresh out of the Bible.

  Etgar Keret

  Frozen, Peas

  "Etgar Keret: We Can Try to Be Human". Interview with Meakin Armstrong, www.guernicamag.com. August 17, 2015.

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• I think that, in Hebrew, it's like the language creates a more unique and specific universe even before the story.

  Etgar Keret

  Unique, Thinking, Stories

  "Etgar Keret: We Can Try to Be Human". Interview with Meakin Armstrong, www.guernicamag.com. August 17, 2015.

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• The Hebrew language... is the only glue which holds together our scattered bones. It also holds together the rings in the chain of time.... It binds us to those who built pyramids, to those who shed their blood on the ramparts of Jerusalem, and to those who, at the burning stakes, cried Shema Yisrael!

  I. L. Peretz

  Pyramids, Blood, Together

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• The Hebrews have a saying that God is more delighted in adverbs than in nouns; it is not so much the matter that is done, but the matter how it is done, that God minds. Not how much, but how well! It is the well-doing that meets with a well-done. Let us therefore serve God, not nominally or verbally, but adverbially.

  Ralph Venning

  Mind, Done, Nouns

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