… the world will indulge you just so long Asher Lev. Then it will stop. You will simply have to grow accustomed to that truth.

Art is whether or not there is a scream in him wanting to get out in a special way.

If a person has a contribution to make, he must make it in public. If learning is not made public, it is a waste.

I won't talk to you about my family and you won't talk to me about yours. Family talk is either boring or self-pitying. Or it's Gothic, like a Faulkner novel. Who needs to talk about it? It's enough to live it.

A word is worth one coin, silence is worth two

A man is born into this world with only a tiny spark of goodness in him. The spark is God, it is the soul; the rest is ugliness and evil, a shell. The spark must be guarded like a treasure, it must be nurtured, it must be fanned into flame. It must learn to seek out other sparks, it must dominate the shell. Anything can be a shell, Reuven. Anything. Indifference, laziness, brutality, and genius. Yes, even a great mind can be a shell and choke the spark.

A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.