“Where to look if you've lost your mind?”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“There are no wrong books. What's wrong is the fear of them.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“You could not pity anything if you weren't a man; pity was a surprise to God. It was not his invention.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“I fix what's broken - except in the heart.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“Would you say you have a "philosophy" Of your own? If so what is it?'
'If I have it's all skin and bones...If I have any philosophy...it's that life could be better than it is.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“We're persecuted in the most civilized languages.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“Charity you can give even when you haven't got.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“I am somewhat of a meliorist. That is to say, I act as an optimist because I find I cannot act at all, as a pessimist. One often feels helpless in the face of the confusion of these times, such a mass of apparently uncontrollable events and experiences to live through, attempt to understand, and if at all possible, give order to; but one must not withdraw from the task if he has some small things to offer - he does so at the risk of diminishing his humanity.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“In my dreams I ate and I ate my dreams.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“A meshummed gives up one God for another. I don't want either. We live in a world where the clock ticks fast while he's on his timeless mountain staring in space. He doesn't see us and he doesn't care. Today I want my piece of bread, not in Paradise.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“They say God appeared in history and used it for his purposes, but if that was so he had no pity for men.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“will you please explain how you can cry for a dead dog yet belong to a society of fanatics that urges death on human beings who happen to be Jews? Explain to me the logic of it.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“So sleep now, without fear for your life, and if you should ever manage to get out of prison, keep in mind that the purpose of freedom is to create it for others.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“Since I can’t be a professional on account of lack of education I wouldn’t mind being wealthy.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“In a sick country every step to health is an insult to those who live on its sickness.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“There are no wrong books. What’s wrong is the fear of them.” Shmuel”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“Being born a Jew meant being vulnerable to history, including its worst errors. Accident and history had involved Yakov Bok as he had never dreamed he could be involved. The involvement was, in a way of speaking, impersonal, but the effect, his misery and suffering, were not. The suffering was personal, painful, and possibly endless.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“I do not have to tell you there has been a disappointing retreat of progress in recent times, whatever it is we call progress, especially disappointing because of the little we have had since the Emancipation. There’s something cursed, it seems to me, about a country where men have owned men as property. The stink of that corruption never escapes the soul, and it is the stink of future evil. Still, the original decrees have not been withdrawn and are therefore the law.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“Keep in mind, Yakov Shepsovitch, that if your life is without value, so is mine. If the law does not protect you, it will not, in the end, protect me. Therefore I dare not fail you, and that is what causes me anxiety—that I must not fail you.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“Who are you, Yakov, Moses himself? If you don’t hear His voice so let Him hear yours. ‘When prayers go up blessings descend.’” “Scorpions descend, hail, fire, sharp rocks, excrement. For that I don’t need God’s help, the Russians are enough.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“Yakov,” said Shmuel, “He invented light. He created the world. He made us both. The true miracle is belief. I believe in Him. Job said, ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him.’ He said more but that’s enough.” “To win a lousy bet with the devil he killed off all the servants and innocent children of Job. For that alone I hate him, not to mention ten thousand pogroms. Ach, why do you make me talk fairy tales? Job is an invention and so is God.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
“Kiev, you understand, is a medieval city full of wild superstition and mysticism. It has always been the heart of Russian reaction. The Black Hundreds, may they sink into their graves, have aroused against you the most ignorant and brutal of the masses. They are deathly afraid of Jews and at the same time frighten them to death. This reveals to you something about the human condition. Rich or poor, those of our brethren who can run out of here are running. Some who can’t are already mourning.”
― Bernard Malamud, quote from The Fixer
Bernard Malamud
Born place: in Brooklyn, New York, The United States
Born date April 28, 1914
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“The free spirit again draws near to life - slowly, to be sure, almost reluctantly, almost mistrustfully. It again grows warmer about him, yellower as it were; feeling and feeling for others acquire depth, warm breezes of all kind blow across him. It seems to him as if his eyes are only now open to what is close at hand. he is astonished and sits silent: where had he been? These close and closest things: how changed they seem! what bloom and magic they have acquired!
He looks back gratefully - grateful to his wandering, to his hardness and self-alienation, to his viewing of far distances and bird-like flights in cold heights. What a good thing he had not always stayed "at home," stayed "under his own roof" like a delicate apathetic loafer! He had been -beside himself-: no doubt about that.
Only now does he see himself - and what surprises he experiences as he does so! What unprecedented shudders! What happiness even in the weariness, the old sickness, the relapses of the convalescent! How he loves to sit sadly still, to spin out patience, to lie in the sun! Who understands as he does the joy that comes in winter, the spots of sunlight on the wall!
They are the most grateful animals in the world, also the most modest, these convalescents and lizards again half-turned towards life: - there are some among them who allow no day to pass without hanging a little song of praise on the hem of its departing robe. And to speak seriously: to become sick in the manner of these free spirits, to remain sick for a long time and then, slowly, slowly, to become healthy, by which I mean "healthier," is a fundamental cure for all pessimism.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, quote from Human, All Too Human
“I smelled like an Upper Level demon. Roth was back and he was relatively unharmed. A Lilin had been born. Apparently an orgasm was apocalyptic.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, quote from Stone Cold Touch
“...it just goes to show you can't leave anything behind. You bring it all with you, whether you want to or not.”
― Stef Penney, quote from The Tenderness of Wolves
“It wasn’t the first time I played on death’s porch, but it didn’t mean that I was used to it either. It was weird how in the movies your whole life okays out in slow motion. It was nothing like that. It was horrible.”
― Adrienne Woods, quote from Firebolt
“O amor, qualquer que seja o tempo, quaisquer que sejam os obstáculos, dura sempre.”
― Nora Roberts, quote from Jewels of the Sun
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Night StarBookQuoters 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.
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