Jewish Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old jewish quotes, jewish sayings, and jewish proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

There are no problems, only opportunities for growth. Rebbetzin Dena Weinberg
I was raised in the Jewish tradition, taught never to marry a Gentile, women shave on Saturday and most especially never to shave a Gentile woman on Saturday. Woody Allen
The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice and the desire for personal independence, these are the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it. Albert Einstein
I'm Jewish. I don't work out. If God had wanted us to bend over, He would have put diamonds on the floor. Joan Rivers
Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here. Golda Meir
Good men need no recommendation and bad men it wouldn't help. Jewish Proverb
It is impossible to conceive of a more thoroughly despicable, hateful, and arrogant being, than the Jewish god. Robert Green Ingersoll
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
The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity. Leo Tolstoy
Good Christ, a Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen year old boy, and will remain a fifteen year old boy till they die! Philip Roth
We want Israel as a democratic and Jewish state. So you have to maintain a Jewish majority, and you want to do that by legal means, by democratic means. Benjamin Netanyahu
I don't speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don't have the power to remain silent. Rabbi A.Y. Kook
One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail. Rabbi Yaacov Perrin
In everything you do you encounter sparks full of life and light, aspiring to rise toward the heights. You help them and they help you. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook
It is most important that we should keep in this country a certain leisured class. I am of the opinion of the ancient Jewish book which says there is no wisdom without leisure. William Butler Yeats
The Jewish people, ever since David slew Goliath, have never considered youth as a barrier to leadership. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Beyond being Jewish, I've always found myself to be very much in tune with spirituality. Paula Abdul
Yes, I am a Jew, and when the ancestors of the Right Honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon. Benjamin Disraeli
There are times when folks will point out certain characteristics I have, like me being an interruptor, and attribute them to my Jewish identity. Jill Soloway
Jewish texts compare the knowable universe to the size of a mustard seed. Similar association between God and man made in Quran, Buddhism. Sudhir Ahluwalia
Being a Jew is like walking in the wind or swimming: you are touched at all points and conscious everywhere. Lionel Trilling
People often avoid making decisions out of fear of making a mistake. Actually the failure to make decisions is one of life's biggest mistakes. Rabbi Noah Weinberg
You may not make the image of God because you are the image of God. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
A Jewish woman had 2 chickens. One got sick, so the woman made chicken soup out of the other one to help the sick one get well. Henny Youngman
I do not recall a Jewish home without a book on the table. Elie Wiesel
Being a Jew, one learns to believe in the reality of cruelty and one learns to recognize indifference to human suffering as a fact. Andrew Dworkin
A Jewish man with his parents alive is half the time a helpless infant. Philip Roth
What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one Jew does is thrown back at all Jews. Anne Frank
I think the thing that I most appreciate now is that stereotypes involving Jewish identity activate fears of persecution that exist in the present day. Gregg Easterbrook
Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial. Ariel Sharon
Israel has created a new image of the Jew in the world the image of a working and an intellectual people, of a people that can fight with heroism. David Ben-Gurion
God's Jewish nation did not understand his divine priority for the kingdom. Sunday Adelaja
If I am I because you are you, and you are you because I am I, then I am not I and you are not you. But if I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you. Rabbi Menachem Mendel
He is the God who loved you so much that His Son stripped Himself of all heavenly glory to live as an impoverished Jewish carpenter so He could shed His blood, suffer, and die for the forgiveness of our sins. Craig Groeschel
What you don't see with your eyes, don't invent with your tongue. Jewish Proverb
Every leaving of a Jewish community is a most difficult thing. Ariel Sharon
If you elect me the first Jewish justice of the peace, I'll reduce the speed limits to 54.95! Kinky Friedman
The Jew has always been a people with definite racial characteristics and never a religion. Adolf Hitler
I marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people. Their best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such an obsession with memory. Elie Wiesel
In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love. Marc Chagall
I do not want followers who are righteous, rather I want followers who are too busy doing good that they won't have time to do bad. Rabbi Menachem Mendel
In Jewish history there are no coincidences. Elie Wiesel
To be a Jew is a destiny. Vicky Baum
Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew. Mahatma Gandhi
If we bear all this suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews, instead of being doomed, will be held up as an example. Anne Frank
Our lives are fashioned by our choices. First we make our choices. Then our choices make us. Anne Frank
There are two ways to live. You can live as if nothing is a miracle. You can live as if everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Viktor Frankl
It is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but neither are you free to absolve yourself of it. Ethics of the Fathers
Life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance you must keep moving. Albert Einstein
Who is the wise person? The one who foresees the consequences. The Talmud
A righteous man falls down seven times and gets up. King Solomon
If you don't know what you're living for, you haven't yet lived. Rabbi Noah Weinberg
You are smart, smart. smart but you are not so smart! Yiddish saying
There are two things that are infinite, the universe and man's stupidity and I am not sure about the universe. Albert Einstein
If I am not for me, who be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? Ethics of the Fathers
If you are not a better person tomorrow than you are today, what need have you for a tomorrow? Rebbe Nachman Of Breslov
To be a Jew is to be strong with a strength that has outlived persecutions. It is to be wise against ignorance, honest against piracy, harmless against evil, kind against cruelty Phyllis Bottome