Quotes by Chaim Potok

Chaim Potok

I’m not altogether certain that a fundamentalism of necessity has to argue that it is the only reading of the human experience in order to stay alive.

Alive

Order

Reading

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

Contribution

Made

Waste

If I had a plot that was all set in advance, why would I want go through the agony of writing the novel? A novel is a kind of exploration and discovery, for me at any rate.

Agony

Discovery

Writing

In our time … a man whose enemies are faceless bureaucrats almost never wins. It is our equivalent to the anger of the gods in ancient times. But those gods you must understand were far more imaginative than our tiny bureaucrats. They spoke from mountaintops not from tiny airless offices. They rode clouds. They were possessed of passion. They had voices and names. Six thousand years of civilization have brought us to this.

Men

Passion

Winning

It is impossible to fuse totally with a culture for which you feel a measure of antagonism.

Antagonism

Culture

Impossible

It is inconceivable to me that a million or three million or half a million human beings will think and feel precisely the same way on any single subject.

Half

Thinking

Three

Literature presents you with alternate mappings of the human experience. You see that the experiences of other people and other cultures are as rich, coherent, and troubled as your own experiences. They are as beset with suffering as yours. Literature is a kind of legitimate voyeurism through the keyhole of language where you really come to know other people’s lives–their anguish, their loves, their passions. Often you discover that once you dive into those lives and get below the surface, the veneer, there is a real closeness.

Other Cultures

Passion

Real

My name is Asher Lev… I am a traitor, an apostate, a self-hater, an inflicter of shame upon my family, my friends, my people; also, I am a mocker of ideas sacred to Christians, a blasphemous manipulator of modes and forms revered by Gentiles for two thousand years.

Christian

Self

Years

Reuven listen to me. The Talmud says that a person should do two things for himself. One is to acquire a teacher. Do you remember the other.” “Choose a friend,” I said. “Yes. You know what a friend is, Reuven? A Greek philosopher said that two people who are true friends are like two bodies with one soul.” I nodded. “Reuven, if you can, make Danny Saunders your friend.” “I like him a lot, abba.” “No. Listen to me. I am not talking about only liking him. I am telling you to make him your friend and to let him make you his friend.

Teacher

True Friend

Two

Seeds must be sown everywhere. Only some will bear fruit. But there would not be the fruit from the few had the many not been sown

Bears

Fruit

Seeds

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Afternoon Tea

Agony

Alive

Antagonism

Art

Backgrounds

Bears

Blink Of An Eye

Book

Break Up

Christian

Coins

Contribution

Creativity

Culture

Differences

Discovery

Doubt

Drinking

Expression

Eye

Family

Fiction

Fighting

Forever

Fruit

Give Me

Given

Giving

Growing Up

Guarantees That

Half

Happy Things

Honest

Hungry

Hungry For Knowledge

Impossible

Life

Long

Long Walks

Lost Friendship

Lunch

Made

Mean

Meaning Of Life

Meaningful

Men

Modern Novel

Order

Other Cultures

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

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The Relationship Therapist

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Quotes by Chaim Potok

Chaim Potok

I’m not altogether certain that a fundamentalism of necessity has to argue that it is the only reading of the human experience in order to stay alive.

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

If I had a plot that was all set in advance, why would I want go through the agony of writing the novel? A novel is a kind of exploration and discovery, for me at any rate.

It is impossible to fuse totally with a culture for which you feel a measure of antagonism.

It is inconceivable to me that a million or three million or half a million human beings will think and feel precisely the same way on any single subject.

My name is Asher Lev… I am a traitor, an apostate, a self-hater, an inflicter of shame upon my family, my friends, my people; also, I am a mocker of ideas sacred to Christians, a blasphemous manipulator of modes and forms revered by Gentiles for two thousand years.

Seeds must be sown everywhere. Only some will bear fruit. But there would not be the fruit from the few had the many not been sown

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

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