Quotes from The Promise

“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, quote from The Promise

“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.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“It is strange how ideas can float about and be ignored until they are put into a book. A book can be a weapon...”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“I held it close to my face and smelled the ink. I have always loved the smell of ink in a new book.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“When the alternative is possible disaster, a man must gamble.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“One derives great moral strength from a cup of coffee," I said.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“You don't want to make mistakes with people. Sometimes when you make a mistake you lose a human soul.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“It's always easier to learn something than to use what you've learned.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“Williamsburg was stifling, narcotized by the heat.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“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.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“A man must sometimes be forced to make choices, for it is only by his choices that we know what a man truly is.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“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.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“It's only a book. But what it means to write a book.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“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.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“A man must be forced to choose. It is only when you are forced to choose that you know what is important to you.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“Take care of your father," he said. "There aren't many people like him around anymore.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“If everybody who had brains and doubts left Orthodoxy, we would be in a great deal of trouble.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“Verbal fraud is worse than monetary fraud.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“Perhaps. But it is childish to think of what might have been.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“How do I convince him that the way we study Talmud is not a threat?'

'But it is a threat, Reuven. I just told you it is a threat. In the hands of those who do not love the tradition it is a dangerous weapon.'

'Everything is dangerous in the wrong hands. How do I convince him that we're not a threat?”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“It's my world, best friend. And I haven't seen anything outside that's better.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“There are times when those who fear God make themselves very unpleasant as human beings.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“We will have many fights. But they will be for the sake of Torah.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“There’s a rabbi in the Talmud who even says there’s no atonement for lashon hara.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

“Gossip, gossip, gossip. Rumors. Tongues. ‘Life and death are in the power of the tongue,’ ” he quoted in Hebrew.”
― Chaim Potok, quote from The Promise

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Popular quotes

“Vic kept looking at Wilson's wagging jaw and thinking of the multitude of people like him on earth, perhaps half the people on earth were of his type, or potentially his type, and thinking that it was not bad at all to be leaving them. The ugly birds without wings. The mediocre who perpetuated mediocrity, who really fought and died for it. He smiled at Wilson's grim, resentful, the-world-owes-me-a-living face, which was the reflection of the small mind behind it, and Vic cursed it and all it stood for. Silently, and with a smile, and with all that was left of him, he cursed it.”
― Patricia Highsmith, quote from Deep Water

“Futurology always ends up telling you more about your own time than about the future.”
― Matt Ridley, quote from The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves

“neuronal field,” as he called it, created within the brain, which in turn interacts with what he called the “pre-space structure”—a field that all space, time, matter, energy, biological life and consciousness emanates from—i.e., the Source Field.”
― David Wilcock, quote from The Source Field Investigations: The Hidden Science and Lost Civilizations Behind the 2012 Prophecies

“And why wouldn’t Pete have said something to me about him going?”
― Hugh Howey, quote from Half Way Home

“(...) istnieje pewna ciekawa teoria grzechu pierworodnego, o której chciałem ci opowiedzieć (...) – niektórzy teologowie uważają, że w przypadku Adama i Ewy nie chodziło o zjedzenie zakazanego jabłka, tylko o znęcanie się nad dzieckiem.
- Znęcanie się nad dzieckiem?
- Tak. Czy sądzisz, że inny grzech byłby w stanie przechodzić z pokolenia na pokolenie? Wykorzystywanie dzieci – znęcanie się i molestowanie seksualne – trwa przez wieki. Dzieci, nad którymi się znęcano, stają się okrutnymi mordercami. Zaczynają dręczyć swoje dzieci i tak dalej. Taki grzech może rozchodzić się niczym fale na wodzie do dwudziestego albo trzydziestego pokolenia.
- Ciekawa teoria.
- I ma też praktyczne konsekwencje. Ponieważ wszyscy pochodzimy od Adama i Ewy, więc jesteśmy ze sobą powiązani niczym rodzina. Jeśli kogoś krzywdzimy, krzywda nie zatrzymuje się na tej osobie, ale idzie dalej. Ból łatwo się rozprzestrzenia. (...)
- To straszne! A gdzie jest koniec tego łańcucha?
- (...), może nim być miłość. Dobre uczynki.”
― quote from Get Me Out of Here: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder

Interesting books

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.