Sholom Aleichem Quotes

Each Jew must either give or take tzedakah [charity] for Passover.

Here lies a plain and simple Jew who wrote in plain and simple prose.

You see how it is, my dear friends. There's no pleasing everyone. It's hopeless to even try, and the more you play the peacemaker, the less peaceful things become.

Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.

No matter how bad things get, you got to go on living, even if it kills you.

I never turn down a drink. Among friends it’s always appropriate. A man is only a man as they say, but brandy is still brandy. You’ll find that in the Talmud too.

There are people who have never been taught anything, and know everything, have never been anywhere, and understand everything, have never given a moment's thought to anything, and comprehend everything. 'Blessed hands' is the name bestowed on these fortunate beings. The world envies, honours and respects them.

Without love our life is ... a ship without a rudder ... like a body without a soul.

A real pleasure is a pleasure that one enjoys by one's self, without a companion, and without a single argument.

No one knows whom the shoe pinches - no one.

The rich swell up with pride, the poor from hunger.

A bachelor is a man who comes to work each morning from a different direction.

A kind word is no substitute for a piece of herring or a bag of oats.

Barking dogs don't bite, but they themselves don't know it.

One cannot live on potatoes alone. It is said that one wants bread with potatoes. And when there's no bread, a Jew takes his stick, and goes through the village in search of business.

If you listen carefully, you get to hear everything you didn't want to hear in the first place.

If somebody tells you you have ears like a donkey, pay no attention. But if two people tell you, buy yourself a saddle.

I will never permit myself to give in to American taste and lower the standards of art.

A wise word is not a substitute for a piece of herring.

To make people laugh was almost a sickness with me.

They say that children become men, and men become children. Many generations have grown up, become men, and gone hence.

A cantor, when he starts singing, it's like rain - once it starts, it's hard to stop.

It is an old custom amongst Jewish children, to become war-like on the 'L'ag Beomer.' They arm themselves from head to foot with wooden swords, pop-guns and bows and arrows. They take food with them, and go off to wage war.

Gossip is nature's telephone.

The worm in the radish doesn't think there is anything sweeter.

Playing nuts is a game like any other, neither better than tops, nor worse than cards. The game is played in various ways. There are 'holes' and 'bank' and 'caps.' But every game finishes up in the same way. One boy loses, another wins. And, as always, he who wins is a clever fellow, a smart fellow, a good fellow.

This is an ugly and mean world, and only to spite it we mustn't weep. If you want to know, this is the constant source of my good spirit, of my humor. Not to cry, out of spite, only to laugh out of spite, only to laugh.

Love is a taste of paradise.

You can take a Jew out of a shtetl, but you cannot take a shtetl out of a Jew.

To go to the synagogue with one's father on the Passover eve - is there in the world a greater pleasure than that? What is it worth to be dressed in new clothes from head to foot, and to show off before one's friends? Then the prayers themselves - the first Festival evening prayer and blessing.

When have you ever heard of a cantor or any artist turning anyone down when he is strongly urged to perform?

Remember, you must not sleep at the Seder. If you do, Elijah the Prophet will come with a bag on his shoulders. On the two first nights of Passover, Elijah the Prophet goes about looking for those who have fallen asleep at the Seder, and takes them away in his bag.

Ah, how many luxuries has the good God prepared for his Jewish children.

When the heart is full it runs out of the eyes.