17 Inspiring Quotes From Awesome Jewish Writers

Inspiration from authors who also happen to be Members of the Tribe, in honor of Jewish Book Month.

1. Albert Einstein

Photo: Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." —Albert Einstein

2. J. D. Salinger

Via biography.com

“I love you to pieces, distraction, etc.” ―J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey

3. Leon Uris

"The only thing that is going to save mankind is if enough people live their lives for something or someone other than themselves." —Leon Uris, QB VII

4. Michael Chabon

Photo: Open Road Integrated Media

“Never say love is ‘like’ anything. . . It isn't.” ―Michael Chabon, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

5. Ruth Gruber

“Everyone can look inside his or her soul and decide what he or she can do to make a world at peace, to end this fighting that goes on every day around the world.” —Ruth Gruber

6. Elie Wiesel

Via architectsofpeace.org

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” ―Elie Wiesel

7. Hannah Arendt

Photo: Fred Stein / Via brainpickings.org

“Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.” ―Hannah Arendt

8. Sholem Aleichem

Via upload.wikimedia.org

“No matter how bad things get, you've got to go on living, even if it kills you.” ―Sholem Aleichem

9. Franz Kafka

Photo: Wikimedia / Via upload.wikimedia.org

“Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” ―Franz Kafka

10. Laura Z. Hobson

Photo: Halsman

“Any life he'd ever heard of, his own included, was burdened with emotions – love, loss, jobs, jealousy, money, death, pain. But if you were Jewish, always there was this extra one, the added pull at your endurance, the one more thing. There was that line in Thoreau about ‘quiet desperation’ – that was indeed true of most men. But for some men and women, for some fathers and mothers and children, the world still contrived that one extra test, endless and unrelenting.” ―Laura Z. Hobson, Gentleman's Agreement

11. Howard Fast

Photo: Maxine Gomberg

“The dignity is in the worker, not in the job.” ―Howard Fast, The Immigrants

12. Bette Greene

“A person's got to think, otherwise that person's no better than a trained seal balancing a ball on his nose. If only that seal could think, he'd know he was making a thousand children laugh.” ―Bette Greene, Summer of My German Soldier

13. Philip Roth

Via wordpress.com

"The legend engraved on the face of the Jewish nickel– on the body of every Jewish child!– not IN GOD WE TRUST, but SOMEDAY YOU'LL BE A PARENT AND YOU'LL KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE." —Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint

14. Saul Bellow

Via openculture.com

“Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.” ―Saul Bellow

15. Bernard Malamud

Photo: Oreg. State Univ. Archives / Via oregonencyclopedia.org

“Without heroes we're all plain people and don't know how far we can go.”

―Bernard Malamud

16. Christopher Hitchens

Via intellectualrevolution.tv

"Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way." —Christopher Hitchens

17. Bel Kaufman

Photo: Copyright Gay Block 2009

“I feel no different than I felt at 99, 98 or 97. Just because you live a long time, you get all this attention. Just because you survived? Of course, I survived a lot.” —Bel Kaufman, on turning 101