I. L. Peretz Quotes

• A people's memory is history; and as a man without a memory, so a people without a history cannot grow wiser, better.

  I. L. Peretz

  Memories, Men, People

  15 Copy quote

• 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

  12 Copy quote

• In the second and third exiles we have served as a living protest against greed and hate, against physical force, against "might makes right"!

  I. L. Peretz

  Hate, Greed, Might

  15 Copy quote

• [About Jews] By nature we are like all other human beings, yet our people is unlike others, because our life is different, our history is different, our teacher is the Exile.

  I. L. Peretz

  Teacher, People, Different

  15 Copy quote

• In this world it is very dangerous to be weak.

  I. L. Peretz

  World, Weak, This World

  13 Copy quote

• Yiddish, the language which will ever bear witness to the violence and murder inflicted on us, bear the marks of our expulsions from land to land, the language which absorbed the wails of the fathers, the laments of the generations, the poison and bitterness of history, the language whose precious jewels are the undried, uncongealed Jewish tears.

  I. L. Peretz

  Father, Jewels, Land

  "Manginot HaZman" by I. L. Peretz, 1886.

  10 Copy quote

• [About Jews] Among other nations, the vital problems are: a good crop, extension of the boundaries, strong armies, colonies; among us, if we wish to be true to ourselves, the vital questions are: conscience, freedom, culture, ethics.

  I. L. Peretz

  Strong, Army, Wish

  "Verk". Edited by Kletzkin, XI. 277f,

  11 Copy quote

• A letter depends on how you read it, a melody on how you sing it.

  I. L. Peretz

  Letters, Melody, Depends

  11 Copy quote

• The worst dog gets the best bone.

  I. L. Peretz

  Dog, Bones, Worst

  6 Copy quote

• Time is change, transformation, evolution.

  I. L. Peretz

  Evolution, Transformation

  7 Copy quote

• Prosperity may be found in small as in big business.

  I. L. Peretz

  May, Prosperity, Bigs

  "Fir Dores Fir Tzavoes" (1901). "Alle Verk," IV. 237,

  9 Copy quote

• Ugliness is the greatest of all sins.

  I. L. Peretz

  Sin, Ugliness

  I. L. Peretz (2013). “The I. L. Peretz Reader”, p.329, Open Road Media

  9 Copy quote

• A heap of bricks is not yet a house.

  I. L. Peretz

  House, Bricks

  8 Copy quote

• [About Jews] Sheer egotism compels us to the purest love of mankind as a whole.... Our hearts are like a sponge, receptive to all the newest humanitarian ideas; and our sympathy goes out to all the unfortunate, all the oppressed.

  I. L. Peretz

  Heart, Ideas, Humanitarian

  Jewish Affairs (Johannesburg), p. 28, June 1952.

  10 Copy quote

• To be of the eternal, you must be of the earth.

  I. L. Peretz

  Earth, Eternal

  5 Copy quote

• Youth is fair, a graceful stag, Leaping, playing in a park. Age is gray, a toothless hag, Stumbling in the dark.

  I. L. Peretz

  Dark, Age, Parks

  8 Copy quote

• Purim is the birthday of the first Schutz-Jude , the first Jewish toady to foreign royalty.

  I. L. Peretz

  Toady, Firsts, Royalty

  "Prince of the Ghetto". Book by Maurice Samuel (p. 123), 1948.

  4 Copy quote

• Many refined people will not kill a fly, but eat an ox.

  I. L. Peretz

  People, Vegetarian, Refined

  "Taanis Gedanken". Alle Verk, xii. 77, 1896.

  27 Copy quote

• It is not only individuals peoples too cannot live merely for themselves. The whole world must be redeemed.

  I. L. Peretz

  World, Individual, Redeemed

  4 Copy quote

• Prayer sometimes dulls the hunger of the pauper, like a mother's finger thrust into the mouth of her starving baby.

  I. L. Peretz

  Mother, Baby, Prayer

  "Prince of the Ghetto". Book by Maurice Samuel (p. 162), 1948.

  4 Copy quote

• If the husband sits on a chair in the Garden of Eden, his wife is his footstool.

  I. L. Peretz

  Husband, Garden, Eden

  5 Copy quote

• We take a drink only for the sake of the benediction.

  I. L. Peretz

  Sake, Drink, Benediction

  "Prince of the Ghetto". Book by M. Samuel, 1948.

  6 Copy quote

• Don't look up to heaven, for what will you see in the sky, except stars, luminous but cold, wholly insensitive to pity?

  I. L. Peretz

  Stars, Sky, Heaven

  "Drei Matones" (1904-1915). As quoted in "Peretz" by S. Liptzin, p. 187, 1947.

  7 Copy quote

• [About the diaspora] Canaan is too small for God's children. The Land of Israel will spread through all lands!

  I. L. Peretz

  Children, Israel, Land

  "Der Dichter" (1910). "Alle Verk," X. 24,

  18 Copy quote

• A stranger's rose is but a thorn.

  I. L. Peretz

  Rose, Stranger

  4 Copy quote

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