Chaim Potok
Chaim Potok
Chaim Potokwas an American Jewish author and rabbi. Potok is most famous for his first book The Chosen, which was listed on The New York Times’ best seller list for 39 weeks and sold more than 3,400,000 copies...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth17 February 1929
CityBuffalo, NY
CountryUnited States of America
Chaim Potok quotes about
teacher true-friend talking
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.
two silence coins
A word is worth one coin, silence is worth two
religious fiction tradition
To the extent that I come from a deeply religious tradition and have been contending with those beginnings all of my life - that constitutes the subject of much of my early fiction.
men meaning-of-life given
The span of a man's life - that is nothing. But what a man makes of that span - that is something. A man must make his own meaning for life. Meaning is not automatically given to life.
differences lost-friendship honest
Honest differences of opinion should never be permitted to destroy a friendship.
reality years two
Two hundred or more years ago most people on the planet were never aware of any reality other than the one into which they were brought up.
father papa world
It's not a pretty world, Papa.' 'I've noticed,' my father said softly.
pain mean eye
We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye? . . .I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something.
art special way
Art is whether or not there is a scream in him wanting to get out in a special way.
accidents blink events eye fortuitous found guess life meet reminds
Life is like the blink of an eye. What is that worth? Nothing. But the eye that blinks - that is something. I guess I blinked, on accident. Sometimes, though, I have found accidents to be the most fortuitous events in my life. You meet the one person who reminds you what you are, what you do, how to be happy.
american-author answers cease dilemmas effective normal offer systems versions
Apocalyptic versions are fall-back systems when the normal systems cease to offer effective answers to the dilemmas of existence.
silence quality dimensions
I've begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.
home men people
Every man who has shown the world the way to beauty, to true culture, has been a rebel, a 'universal' without patriotism, without home, who has found his people everywhere.
forever
Something that is yours forever is never precious