Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Chaim Potok

Quote by Chaim Potok

Work

The Chosen

This book delves into the complex lives of its characters, examining their choices and the consequences that follow, set against a backdrop that highlights the struggle between tradition and modernity. more

Author

Chaim Potok
Chaim Potok

Chaim Potok, born on February 17, 1929, in New York City, was an American Jewish author known for his works that delve into Jewish culture and American society, characterized by profound religious and philosophical reflections. His most famous works include 'The Chosen' and 'The Hope of a Beginnings', which have been well-received by readers worldwide. more

You May Also Like

“You can listen to silence, Reuven. 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. It talks to me sometimes. I feel myself alive in it. It talks. And I can hear it. ... You have to want to listen to it, and then you can hear it. It has a strange, beautiful texture. It doesn't always talk. Sometimes - sometimes it cries, and you can hear the pain of the world in it. It hurts to listen to it then. But you have to.”

PainSilenceListening
Book:The Chosen
Create image

“A single word can brighten the face of one who knows the value of words. Ripened in silence, a single word acquires a great energy for work. War is cut short by a word, and a word heals the wounds, and there’s a word that changes poison into butter and honey. Let a word mature inside yourself. Withhold the unripened thought. Come and understand the kind of word that reduces money and riches to dust. Know when to speak a word and when not to speak at all. A single word turns the universe of hell into eight paradises. Follow the Way. Don’t be fooled by what you already know. Be watchful. Reflect before you speak. A foolish mouth can brand your soul. Yunus, say one last thing about the power of words – Only the word “I” divides me from God.”

SilenceHellMeditationSpeechWordsParadiseTurkish PoetryWise SpeechFoolish SpeechUnripened Thought
Author:Yunus Emre
Create image

“I dined with Legrandin on the terrace of his house by moonlight. "There is a charming quality, is there not," he said to me, "in this silence; for hearts that are wounded, as mine is, a novelist whom you will read in time to come asserts that there is no remedy but silence and shadow. And you see this, my boy, there comes in all our lives a time, towards which you still have far to go, when the weary eyes can endure but one kind of light, the light which a fine evening like this prepares for us in the stillroom for darkness, when the ears can listen to no music save what the moonlight breathes through the flute of silence.”

Silence
Book:Swann’s Way
Create image