Our days on earth are like a shadow, and the time of our affliction is the length of our days.

People's talk and the stories they tell have been engraved on my heart, and some of them have flown into my pen.

But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.

I returned to Jerusalem, and it is by virtue of Jerusalem that I have written all that God has put into my heart and into my pen.

After all my possessions had been burned, God gave me the wisdom to return to Jerusalem.

When I first began to combine letters other than Hebrew, I read every book in German that came my way, and from these I certainly received according to the nature of my soul.

Our sages of blessed memory have said that we must not enjoy any pleasure in this world without reciting a blessing.