Quotes from The Devil's Arithmetic

Jane Yolen ·  170 pages

Rating: (46.3K votes)


“You are a name, not a number. Never forget that name, whatever they tell you here. You will always be Chaya—life—to me.”
― Jane Yolen, quote from The Devil's Arithmetic


“We all have such stories. It is a brutal arithmetic. But I - I am alive. You are alive. As long as we breathe, we can see and hear. As long as we can remember, all those gone before are alive inside us.”
― Jane Yolen, quote from The Devil's Arithmetic


“But as the scissors snip-snapped through her hair and the razor shaved the rest, she realized with a sudden awful panic that she could no longer recall anything from the past. I cannot remember, she whispered to herself. I cannot remember. She's been shorn of memory as brutally as she'd been shorn of her hair, without permission, without reason... Gone, all gone, she thought again wildly, no longer even sure what was gone, what she was mourning.”
― Jane Yolen, quote from The Devil's Arithmetic


“We are all monsters" Hannah said. "Because we are letting it happen." She said it not as if she believed it but as she were to repeat something she had heard before.”
― Jane Yolen, quote from The Devil's Arithmetic


“Know, my son, that the enemy will always be with you. He will be in the shadow of your dreams and in your living flesh, for he is the other part of yourself. There will be times when he will surround you with walls of darkness. But remember always that your soul is secure to you, for your soul is entire, and that he cannot enter your soul, for your soul is part of God.”
― Jane Yolen, quote from The Devil's Arithmetic



“Passover isn't about eating, Hannah," her mother began at last, sighing and pushing her fingers through her silver-streaked hair. "You could have fooled me," Hannah muttered.”
― Jane Yolen, quote from The Devil's Arithmetic


“If we do not laugh, we will cry. Crying will only make us hotter and sweatier. We Jews like to joke about death because what you laugh at and make familiar can no longer frighten you. Besides, Chayaleh, what else is there to do?”
― Jane Yolen, quote from The Devil's Arithmetic


About the author

Jane Yolen
Born place: in New York, New York, The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“So what do I get?" Reyna asked.
"You already have the cloak."
"How about this boar Matt mentioned?"
"Not yet, daughter of Freya." Hildar paused, as if thinking. "There is the chariot drawn by cats."
"Cats? Like leopards? Tigers?"
"Just cats. House cats, I believe you call them.”
― K.L. Armstrong, quote from Odin's Ravens


“Talik said, 'His contract with Lord Berenger ends soon. Ancel will seek a new contract, a high bidder. He wants money, status. He is foolish. Lord Berenger may offer less money, but he is kind, and never puts pets in the ring. Ancel has made many enemies. In the ring, someone will scratch his green eyes out, an "accident."'

Damen was drawn in against his will. 'That's why he's chasing royal attention? He wants the Prince to--' He tried out the unfamiliar vocabulary. '--offer for his contract?'

'The Prince?' said Talik, scornfully. 'Everyone knows the Prince does not keep pets.'

'None at all?' said Damen.

She said, 'You.' She looked him up and down. 'Perhaps the Prince has a taste for men, not these painted Veretian boys who squeal if you pinch them.' Her tone suggested that she approved of this on general principle.”
― C.S. Pacat, quote from Captive Prince: Volume One


“To a terrible place which men’s ears             may not hear of, nor their eyes see it.”
― Sophocles, quote from The Three Theban Plays: Antigone / Oedipus the King / Oedipus at Colonus


“And even if Amina didn't yet know what it was to love like that, to burn until your spine has no choice but to try to wind itself around an empty shirt, she understood for sure that the people who said it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all were a bunch of dicks.”
― Mira Jacob, quote from The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing


“If you love the wrong one so much, just imagine how much you can love the right one.”
― Brandon Stanton, quote from Humans of New York


Interesting books

Love Bites
(20K)
Love Bites
by Lynsay Sands
Rumors
(35K)
Rumors
by Anna Godbersen
Out for Blood
(10.8K)
Out for Blood
by Alyxandra Harvey
Unraveling
(18K)
Unraveling
by Elizabeth Norris
Bound by Flames
(17.1K)
Bound by Flames
by Jeaniene Frost
Noggin
(9.9K)
Noggin
by John Corey Whaley

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.