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1 " It's always easier to learn something than to use what you've learned. . . . You're alone when you're learning. But you always use it on other people. It's different when there are other people involved. "
― Chaim Potok , The Promise
2 " It is strange how ideas can float about and be ignored until they are put into a book. A book can be a weapon... "
3 " Perhaps. But it is childish to think of what might have been. "
4 " A choice tells the world what is most important to a human being. When a man has a choice to make he chooses what is most important to him, and that choice tells the world what kind of a man he is. "
5 " I held it close to my face and smelled the ink. I have always loved the smell of ink in a new book. "
6 " One derives great moral strength from a cup of coffee," I said. "
7 " You don't want to make mistakes with people. Sometimes when you make a mistake you lose a human soul. "
8 " It's always easier to learn something than to use what you've learned. "
9 " Williamsburg was stifling, narcotized by the heat. "
10 " We become like dead branches and last year's leaves and what the hell good are we for ourselves and the world in a mental ghetto. "
11 " A man must sometimes be forced to make choices, for it is only by his choices that we know what a man truly is. "
12 " A man must be forced to choose. It is only when you are forced to choose that you know what is important to you. "
13 " They become angry and ugly and they fight anything that's a threat to them. We have to learn how to fight back without hurting them too much. "
14 " He became angry. “It should read ‘those who fear ideas,’ not ‘those who fear God.’ There are times when those who fear God make themselves very unpleasant as human beings. "
15 " It's only a book. But what it means to write a book. "
16 " He's not asking me to make a choice. He's telling me to take a stand. I'm either with him or against him. All or nothing. I'm disgusted with the whole business. I don't want smicha if the price I have to pay for it is to stop thinking. "
17 " Take care of your father," he said. "There aren't many people like him around anymore. "
18 " If everybody who had brains and doubts left Orthodoxy, we would be in a great deal of trouble. "
19 " Verbal fraud is worse than monetary fraud. "
20 " It's my world, best friend. And I haven't seen anything outside that's better. "