Isaac Leib Peretz quotes - page 2

Isaac Leib Peretz was a Polish-Jewish writer, playwright, and one of the leading figures of modern Yiddish literature. His works highlighted the struggles, dreams, and spiritual yearnings of Eastern European Jews. He played a crucial role in shaping Jewish cultural identity through both his writings and support for emerging literary voices. Here are 65 of his quotes:

The soul is imprisoned in the body, and the Lord... built two windows in the wall of the prison... Unfortunately, the windows have curtains-eyelids; and a man whose soul is impure, feeling himself scrutinized, lets down the curtains and conceals the soul.

Isaac Leib Peretz

You are the weakest and the least, and the last to be redeemed.... You will be freed, when man will rise above the earthly, when human worms will turn into human eagles.

Isaac Leib Peretz

Jews are likened to sand: tiny grains, dry and scattered, each separate from the other.

Isaac Leib Peretz

According to the generation is the music thereof.

Isaac Leib Peretz

[Christianity] is a denial of this world, a severance from reality, an abdication, a means of redemption from, not for, life.

Isaac Leib Peretz

Time is change, transformation, evolution. Time is eternal sprouting, blossoming, the eternal tomorrow.

Isaac Leib Peretz

Not all Hasidim are hasidim.

Isaac Leib Peretz

He who provides life provides also a living.

Isaac Leib Peretz

Who tells the truth needs no fancy phrases.

Isaac Leib Peretz

With the same bricks one may erect... a palace or a prison.... The same letters are used in Holy Writ and heretical works.

Isaac Leib Peretz

I am a rainworm, buried deep Among the oozing, slimy things, Yet of an eagle's nest I dream, And eagle's wings.

Isaac Leib Peretz

The voice is on the borderline between the physical and the spiritual.

Isaac Leib Peretz

We are like fish In this vast sea. And Satan fishes For you and me.

Isaac Leib Peretz

[About the diaspora] Canaan is too small for God's children. The Land of Israel will spread through all lands!

Isaac Leib Peretz

"For the commandment is a lamp" [Prov. 6.23]. And the spark which kindles the commandment is devotion.

Isaac Leib Peretz

Man has been likened to an earthen pot.... You have but to tap the pot with your finger. If it rings back full and true, all is well; there is your perfect pot. And if not-man, alas, has been likened to a broken potsherd.

Isaac Leib Peretz

One God, one Law, one people, and one land.

Isaac Leib Peretz

"May all unite to do Thy will with a perfect heart!"... Thus prays the Jew. Have you more beautiful prayers to offer?

Isaac Leib Peretz

Human lips are now forbidden to utter His name, for being the only God, He needs no name.

Isaac Leib Peretz

Rather a stone, but to be alone!

Isaac Leib Peretz

Little houses in a row, Down a quiet lane; Neither doors nor windows know, Peace and darkness reign. Though you cannot pay the rent, You will dwell there with the best. Where the weary, broken, spent, Find eternal rest!

Isaac Leib Peretz

The song that from the heart would spring Is dead for want of echoing.

Isaac Leib Peretz