Sholom Aleichem famous quotes

Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Life #Wise #Dream

No matter how bad things get, you got to go on living, even if it kills you.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Inspiring #Bad Day #Matter

The rich swell up with pride, the poor from hunger.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Pride #Hunger #Rich

To go to the synagogue with one's father on the Passover eve - is there in the world a greater pleasure than that? What is it worth to be dressed in new clothes from head to foot, and to show off before one's friends? Then the prayers themselves - the first Festival evening prayer and blessing.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Prayer #Father #Blessing

Remember, you must not sleep at the Seder. If you do, Elijah the Prophet will come with a bag on his shoulders. On the two first nights of Passover, Elijah the Prophet goes about looking for those who have fallen asleep at the Seder, and takes them away in his bag.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Sleep #Night #Two

This is an ugly and mean world, and only to spite it we mustn't weep. If you want to know, this is the constant source of my good spirit, of my humor. Not to cry, out of spite, only to laugh out of spite, only to laugh.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Mean #Laughing #World

You see how it is, my dear friends. There's no pleasing everyone. It's hopeless to even try, and the more you play the peacemaker, the less peaceful things become.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Play #Peaceful #Trying

When the heart is full it runs out of the eyes.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Running #Eye #Heart

Love is a taste of paradise.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Love #Love Is #Taste

Without love our life is ... a ship without a rudder ... like a body without a soul.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Love #Soul #Body

The worm in the radish doesn't think there is anything sweeter.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Thinking #Worms

I never turn down a drink. Among friends it’s always appropriate. A man is only a man as they say, but brandy is still brandy. You’ll find that in the Talmud too.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Men #Drink #Brandy

If somebody tells you you have ears like a donkey, pay no attention. But if two people tell you, buy yourself a saddle.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Self #Two #People

Barking dogs don't bite, but they themselves don't know it.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Dog

A wise word is not a substitute for a piece of herring.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Wise #Pieces #Substitutes

Playing nuts is a game like any other, neither better than tops, nor worse than cards. The game is played in various ways. There are 'holes' and 'bank' and 'caps.' But every game finishes up in the same way. One boy loses, another wins. And, as always, he who wins is a clever fellow, a smart fellow, a good fellow.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Clever #Smart #Winning

One cannot live on potatoes alone. It is said that one wants bread with potatoes. And when there's no bread, a Jew takes his stick, and goes through the village in search of business.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Village #Want #Bread

Gossip is nature's telephone.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Nature #Gossip #Telephones

They say that children become men, and men become children. Many generations have grown up, become men, and gone hence.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Children #Men #Generations

When have you ever heard of a cantor or any artist turning anyone down when he is strongly urged to perform?
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Artist #Heard

A real pleasure is a pleasure that one enjoys by one's self, without a companion, and without a single argument.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Real #Self #Argument

Ah, how many luxuries has the good God prepared for his Jewish children.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Children #Luxury #Good God

Here lies a plain and simple Jew who wrote in plain and simple prose.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Lying #Simple #Jew

No one knows whom the shoe pinches - no one.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Shoes

You can take a Jew out of a shtetl, but you cannot take a shtetl out of a Jew.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Jew

There are people who have never been taught anything, and know everything, have never been anywhere, and understand everything, have never given a moment's thought to anything, and comprehend everything. 'Blessed hands' is the name bestowed on these fortunate beings. The world envies, honours and respects them.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Blessed #Hands #Names

It is an old custom amongst Jewish children, to become war-like on the 'L'ag Beomer.' They arm themselves from head to foot with wooden swords, pop-guns and bows and arrows. They take food with them, and go off to wage war.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Children #War #Gun

I will never permit myself to give in to American taste and lower the standards of art.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Art #Giving #Taste

A cantor, when he starts singing, it's like rain - once it starts, it's hard to stop.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Rain #Singing

Each Jew must either give or take tzedakah [charity] for Passover.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Giving #Charity #Jew

A bachelor is a man who comes to work each morning from a different direction.
-- Sholom Aleichem

#Morning #Work #Men