A characteristic thing about the aspiring immigrant is the fact that he is not content to progress alone. Solitary success is imperfect success in his eyes. He must take his family with him as he rises.

You went up to be examined with the other Jewish children, your heart heavy about that matter of your nose.

A long past vividly remembered is like a heavy garment that clings to your limbs when you would run.

What we get in steerage is not the refuse, but the sinew and bone of all the nations.

Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.

I want now to be of today. It is painful to be conscious of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness.

A proper autobiography is a death-bed confession.