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

  David Antin

  Remember, Enough, Ceremony

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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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• English has been this vacuum cleaner of a language, because of its history meeting up with the Romans and then the Danes, the Vikings and then the French and then the Renaissance with all the Latin and Greek and Hebrew in the background.

  David Crystal

  Latin, Greek, Vacuums

  "From 'App' To 'Tea': English Examined In '100 Words'". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. May 25, 2012.

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• You should do what we do, stack chips like Hebrews.

  Puff Daddy

  Chips, Should

  Song: It's All About The Benjamins, Album: No Way Out

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• When I first began to combine letters other than Hebrew, I read every book in German that came my way, and from these I certainly received according to the nature of my soul.

  Shmuel Yosef Agnon

  Book, Soul, Letters

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• The logical man must either deny all miracles or none, and our American Indian myths and hero stories are perhaps, in themselves, quite as credible as those of the Hebrews of old.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Hero, Men, Miracle

  Charles Alexander Eastman, Michael Oren Fitzgerald (2007). “The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa): Light on the Indian World”, p.7, World Wisdom, Inc

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• The Lord knows that I could not open scripture; he must by his prophetical office open it unto me. So after that being unsatisfied in the thing, the Lord was pleased to bring this scripture out of the Hebrews.

  Anne Hutchinson

  Office, Scripture, Lord

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• Pantaenus was one of these and is said to have gone to India. It is reported that among persons there who knew of Christ, he found the Gospel according to Matthew, which had anticipated his own arrival. For Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached to them, and left with them the writing of Matthew in the Hebrew language, which they had preserved till that time. After many good deeds, Pantaenus finally became the head of the school at Alexandria, and expounded the treasures of divine doctrine both orally and in writing.

  Eusebius

  School, Writing, Doctrine

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• Nowhere in the Hebrew Scriptures does it say that God is omnipotent.

  Tony Campolo

  Scripture, Doe, Omnipotent

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• I have never been particularly good with languages. Despite a dozen years of Hebrew school and a lifetime of praying in the language, I'm ashamed to admit that I still can't read an Israeli newspaper. Besides English, the only language I speak with any degree of fluency is Spanish.

  Joshua Foer

  School, Years, Dozen

  "How I learned a language in 22 hours" by Joshua Foer, www.theguardian.com. November 9, 2012.

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