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

“I will never hurt you.
I will always help you.
If you are hungry
Ill give you my food.
If you are frightened
I am your friend.
I love you now.
And love does not end.”
― Orson Scott Card, quote from Songmaster

“The monster I kill every day is the monster of realism. The monster who attacks me every day is destruction. Out of the duel comes the transformation. I turn destruction into creation over and over again.”
― Anaïs Nin, quote from Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love"--The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin

“Malone is surly, scary and ugly,” I say. “So I’m gonna pass on him, if you don’t mind.” “I don’t know,” Chantal says. She looks past me. “What do you say, Malone? Want to go out with Maggie?”
― Kristan Higgins, quote from Catch of the Day

“I say, I can not identify that thing which is called happiness, that thing whose token is a laugh, or a smile, or a silent serenity on the lip. I may have been happy, but it is not in my conscious memory now. Nor do I feel a longing for it, as though I had never had it; my spirit seeks different food from happiness, for I think I have a suspicion of what it is. I have suffered wretchedness, but not because of the absence of happiness, and without praying for happiness. I pray for peace -- for motionlessness -- for the feeling of myself, as of some plant, absorbing life without seeking it, and existing without individual sensation. I feel that there can be no perfect peace in individualness. Therefore, I hope one day to feel myself drank up into the pervading spirit animating all things. I feel I am an exile here. I still go straying.”
― Herman Melville, quote from Pierre: or, the Ambiguities

“Lips that taste of tears, they say,
Are the best for kissing.”
― Dorothy Parker, quote from The Poetry and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker (Modern Library)

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.