Isaac Bashevis Singer Quotes - Page 2

But if we have people who have the power to tell a story, there will always be readers.

God is a writer and we are both the heroes and the readers.

As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behavior toward 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.

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.

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

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

No matter how much you know a human being, you don't know him enough.

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

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.

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

The waste basket is the writer's best friend.

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.

From borrowing one gets poorer and from work one gets richer.

We are all God's creatures-that we pray to God for mercy and justice while we continue to eat the flesh of animals that are slaughtered on our account is not consistent.

Of course I believe in free will. Do we have a choice?

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

All is foreseen but the choice is given.

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

I believe in God but people are liars. It's those people who say they are appointed by God who I don't believe in.

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? Nobel laureate in literature.

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

While facts never become obsolete or stale, commentaries always do.

Various philosophers and religious leaders tried to convince their disciples and followers that animals are nothing more than machines without a soul, without feelings. However, anyone who has ever lived with an animal-be it a dog, a bird, or even a mouse-knows that this theory is a brazen lie, invented to justify cruelty.

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.

I believe in free will. I have no choice.