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The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1) QUOTES

The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1) QUOTES

1 " On a cloudless night, inky dark, with only a rind of a moon above, the Golem and the Jinni went walking together along the Prince Street rooftops. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

2 " It occurred to him to say the viddui, the prayer before death. He struggled to remember it. Blessed are You, who has bestowed me with many blessings. May my death atone for all I have done . . . and may I shelter in the shadow of Your wings in the World to Come. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

3 " All of us are lonely at some point or another, no matter how many people surround us. And then, we meet someone who seems to understand. She smiles, and for a moment the loneliness disappears. Add to that the effects of physical desire-and the excitement you spoke of-and all good sense and judgement fall away. The Rabbi paused, then said, But love founded only on loneliness and desire will die out before long. A shared history, tradition and values will link two people more thoroughly than any physical act. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

4 " Her father, indulgent in his concern, had opened his library to her, and at last she could read to her heart's content. In all, these past few weeks had been some of the most peaceable of her life. She had the sense of existing inside a fragile pause, a moment of grace. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

5 " He'd lived so long in anticipation of his own death that to contemplate his future was like standing at the edge of a cliff, staring into a vertiginous rush of open sky. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

6 " The jinni sighed. 'I'm less grateful to him than I should be. He's a good and generous man, but I'm not accustomed to relying on someone else. It makes me feel weak.’

'How is relying on others a weakness?'

'How can it be anything else? If for some reason Arbeely died tomorrow, I'd be forced to find another occupation. The event would be outside my control, yet I'd be at its mercy. Is that not weakness?'

'I suppose. But then, going by your standard, everyone is weak. So why call it a weakness, instead of just the way things are? "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

7 " It's his duty. A good healer can't pick and choose. If he can help, then he must. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

8 " A man might desire something for a moment, while a larger part of him rejects it. You'll need to learn to judge people by their actions, not their thoughts. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

9 " Even in the driest desert a rainstorm could strike with little warning, and a jinni caught in the rain was in mortal danger. For no matter what shape a jinni might assume, be it human or animal or its own true shape of no shape at all, it was still a living spark of fire, and could easily be extinguished. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

10 " If he wasn't careful, he'd fall to chasing his own mind, trapped in the maddening game of don't think about that. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

11 " Sometimes men want what they don't have because they don't have it. Even if everyone offered to share, they would only want the share that wasn't theirs. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

12 " All of us are lonely at some point or another, no matter how any people surround us. And then, we meet someone who seems to understand. She smiles, and for a moment the loneliness disappears. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

13 " Faith is believing in something even without proof, because you know it in your heart to be true. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

14 " The human body is like a piece of fabric. No matter how well one cares for it, it frays as it ages. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

15 " And perhaps the humans did create their God. But does that make him less real? Take this arch. They created it. Now it exists. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

16 " Chava," he said, "it's a cruel irony that you have the most difficulty precisely when those around you are on their best behavior. I suspect you would find it much easier if we all cast politeness aside, and took whatever we pleased."
She considered. "It would be easier, at first. But then you might hurt each other to gain your wishes, and grow afraid of each other, and still go on wanting. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

17 " If the act of love is so dangerous, why do people risk so much for it? "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

18 " They’d need no reason!” shouted Arbeely. “Why can’t you understand? Men need no reason to cause mischief, only an excuse! "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

19 " I trust you above all others", he told her. "Above myself". She shook her head, but then leaned into him, as though taking shelter. He drew her close, the crown of her head beneath his cheek. Beyond the hansom's window, New York was an endless rhythm of walls and windows and doors, darkened alleys, flashes of sunlight. he thought, if he could pick a moment to be taken into the flask, a moment to live in endlessly, perhaps he would choose this one: the passing city, and the woman at his side. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

20 " Most idealists lived in their own impossible worlds, sealed away from reality; Maryam, it seemed, effortlessly reached out from hers and drew others inside. "

― Helene Wecker , The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)