Profoundly inspirational Jewish quotes will brighten up your day and make you feel ready to take on anything.
Famous Jewish Quotes
How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. Anne Frank
A person should always [prefer to] live in a neighborhood of lions rather than a city of evildoers
Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement. Golda Meir
I was raised in the Jewish tradition, taught never to marry a Gentile, women shave on Saturday and most especially never to shave a Gentile woman on Saturday. Woody Allen
I lived, while 1 1/2 million Jewish children died. So I have an obligation to repair the world. Ruth Westheimer
The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice and the desire for personal independence, these are the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it. Albert Einstein
Let the Good in me connect with the good in others, until the world is transformed through the compelling power of love. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov
I’m Jewish. I don’t work out. If God had wanted us to bend over, He would have put diamonds on the floor. Joan Rivers
The highest form of wisdom is kindness. from the Talmud
Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here. Golda Meir
Every act of forgiveness mends something broken in this fractured world. It is a step, however small, in the long, hard journey to redemption. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Good men need no recommendation and bad men it wouldn’t help. Jewish Proverb
Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately. Elie Wiesel
It is impossible to conceive of a more thoroughly despicable, hateful, and arrogant being, than the Jewish god. Robert Green Ingersoll
To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens. Rabbi Menachem Mendel
The legend engraved on the face of the Jewish nickel on the body of every Jewish child! Not in God we trust, but someday you’ll be a parent and you’ll know what it’s like. Philip Roth
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. Abraham Joshua Heschel
The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity. Leo Tolstoy
One of the very first lessons of the Torah gives it a place of high priority: All human beings are created equal. This belief in equality compels action in response to discrimination, racism, and racial injustice. Rabbi Dr. Laura Novak Winer
We want Israel as a democratic and Jewish state. So you have to maintain a Jewish majority, and you want to do that by legal means, by democratic means. Benjamin Netanyahu
Everybody, every human being has the obligation to contribute somehow to this world. Edith Carter
I don’t speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don’t have the power to remain silent. Rabbi A.Y. Kook
I grew up in a tradition where having ideas and contributing to the community and creating art that had an impact on the world mattered. That’s part of the Jewish tradition. Eve Ensler
One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail. Rabbi Yaacov Perrin
To be a Jew, essentially and not just accidentally, is to regard the Jewish people as one’s sole primal community. Election by the unique God requires total and unconditional loyalty to one people. David Novak
It is most important that we keep in this country a certain leisure class. I am of the opinion of the ancient Jewish book which says there is no wisdom without leisure. William Butler Yeats
The Jewish community has always taken care of its own. Lee Whitnum
The Jewish people, ever since David slew Goliath, have never considered youth as a barrier to leadership. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
There is never a Jewish community without its scholars, but where Jews may not be both intellectuals and Jews, they prefer to remain Jews. Mary Antin
Beyond being Jewish, I’ve always found myself to be very much in tune with spirituality. Paula Abdul
When there’s an emerging social issue that needs greater attention by the Jewish community, that’s where I am. Nina Beth Cardin
Yes, I am a Jew, and when the ancestors of the Right Honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon. Benjamin Disraeli
There is a wide range of views within the Jewish community, so it is not monolithic. Barack Obama
There are times when folks will point out certain characteristics I have, like me being an interrupter, and attribute them to my Jewish identity. Jill Soloway
Join the community: the wolf snatches only the stray sheep that wanders off from the flock. Jewish Proverb
Jewish texts compare the knowable universe to the size of a mustard seed. Similar association between God and man is made in Quran, Buddhism. Sudhir Ahluwalia
The community is Israel’s rampart. Jewish Proverb
People often avoid making decisions out of fear of making a mistake. Actually the failure to make decisions is one of life’s biggest mistakes. Rabbi Noah Weinberg
The people of Israel compose a single soul. Only the bodies are separate. Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi
You may not make the image of God because you are the image of God. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
A candle is a small thing. But one candle can light another. And see how its own light increases. As a candle gives its flame to the other, you are such a light. Moshe Davis
A Jewish woman had 2 chickens. One got sick, so the woman made chicken soup out of the other one to help the sick one get well. Henny Youngman
Community is a society with a human face. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
I do not recall a Jewish home without a book on the table. Elie Wiesel
A summary of every Jewish holiday: They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat! Alan King
Being a Jew, one learns to believe in the reality of cruelty and one learns to recognize indifference to human suffering as a fact. Andrew Dworkin
Hey, I may loathe myself, but it has nothing to do with the fact that I’m Jewish. Larry David
What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one Jew does is thrown back at all Jews. Anne Frank
For a Jewish guy, I’ve recorded a lot of Christmas albums. Barry Manilow
Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial. Ariel Sharon
Everyone complains about a lack of money, but none complain about a lack of brains. Jewish Proverb
Israel has created a new image of the Jew in the world, the image of a working and an intellectual people, of a people that can fight with heroism. David Ben Gurion
Please accept my resignation. I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member. Groucho Marx
God’s Jewish nation did not understand his divine priority for the kingdom. Sunday Adelaja
Anytime a person goes into a delicatessen and orders a pastrami on white bread, somewhere a Jew dies. Milton Berle
He is the God who loved you so much that His Son stripped Himself of all heavenly glory to live as an impoverished Jewish carpenter so He could shed His blood, suffer, and die for the forgiveness of our sins. Craig Groeschel
Even a secret agent can’t lie to a Jewish Mother. Peter Malkin
Leaving a Jewish community is a most difficult thing. Ariel Sharon
Worries go down better with soup than without. Jewish Proverb
The Jew has always been a people with definite racial characteristics and never a religion. Adolf Hitler
If you look at a group of people that had faith, it’s got to be the Jews. They followed Moses through the desert for 40 years with no map. There had to be one guy in the back, like, ‘I don’t think he knows where he’s going. Adam Ferrara
I marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people. Their best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such an obsession with memory. Elie Wiesel
Well, I just said that Jesus and I were both Jewish and that neither of us ever had a job, we never had a home, we never married and we traveled around the countryside irritating people. Kinky Friedman
In our life there is a single color, as on an artist’s palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love. Marc Chagall
Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason. Jerry Seinfeld
As long as the world is turning and spinning, we’re gonna be dizzy and we’re gonna make mistakes. Mel Brooks
I do not want followers who are righteous, rather I want followers who are too busy doing good that they won’t have time to do bad. Rabbi Menachem Mendel
I was born in New York City, but I was raised in New Jersey, part of the great Jewish emigration of 1963. Jon Stewart
In Jewish history there are no coincidences. Elie Wiesel
Why do Jewish men die before their wives? They want to. Henny Youngman
Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew. Mahatma Gandhi
I’m Jewish. I don’t work out. If God had wanted us to bend over, He would have put diamonds on the floor. Joan Rivers
If we bear all this suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews, instead of being doomed, will be held up as an example. Anne Frank
Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. Anne Frank
There are two ways to live. You can live as if nothing is a miracle. You can live as if everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein
Jews survived all the defeats, expulsions, persecutions and pogroms, the centuries in which they were regarded as a pariah people, even the Holocaust itself, because they never gave up the faith that one day they would be free to live as Jews without fear. Jonathan Sac
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Viktor Frankl
This is the story of a people which was scattered over all the world and yet remained a single family, a nation which time and again was doomed to destruction and yet, out of the ruins, rose to new life. Abba Kovner
It is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but neither are you free to absolve yourself of it. Ethics of the Fathers
We can endure much more than we think we can; all human experience testifies to that. Rabbi Harold S. Kushner
Who is the wise person? The one who foresees the consequences. The Talmud
Whenever feeling downcast, each person should vitally remember, ‘For my sake, the entire world was created. Baal Shem Tov
A righteous man falls down seven times and gets up. King Solomon
The idea that it’s possible to move from slavery to freedom and from darkness to light and from despair to hope that’s the greatest Jewish story ever told. Rabbi Sharon Brous
If you don’t know what you’re living for, you haven’t yet lived. Rabbi Noah Weinberg
Life is a tragedy full of joy. Bernard Malamud
There are two things that are infinite, the universe and man’s stupidity and I am not sure about the universe. Albert Einstein
Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness. Allen Ginsberg
If I am not for me, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? Ethics of the Fathers
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. Viktor Frankl
You have to have faith, fantasy, hope, drive, determination, and the belief that tomorrow will be better. Magda Brown
If you are not a better person tomorrow than you are today, what do you for tomorrow? Rebbe Nachman Of Breslov
We are alive. We are human, with good and bad in us. That’s all we know for sure. We can’t create a new species or a new world. That’s been done. Now we have to live within those boundaries. What are our choices? We can despair and curse, and change nothing. We can choose evil like our enemies have done and create a world based on hate. Or we can try to make things better. Carol Matas
To be a Jew is to be strong with a strength that has outlived persecutions. It is to be wise against ignorance, honest against piracy, harmless against evil, kind against cruelty. Phyllis Bottome
The past is not easy to forget, and I do not want to forget. The past lives in me. I don’t live in the past. Olga Horak
