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 heard on all sides that the brightest Jewish children were turned down if the examining officers did not like the turn of their noses.

A proper autobiography is a death-bed confession.

There is never a Jewish community without its scholars, but where Jews may not be both intellectuals and Jews, they prefer to remain Jews.

On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be fined twenty-five rubles.

The czar always got his dues, no matter if it ruined a family.

I have so little mastered the art of tranquil living that wherever I go I trail storm clouds of drama around me.