Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by S.Y. Agnon

Quote by S.Y. Agnon

“This is in line with what the Yalkut notes: when King David finished composing the Book of Psalms, he boasted to the Holy One, blessed be He, "Master of the Universe! Is there anything in the world that lifts up its voice in song like me?"—upon which a frog appeared before him and said, "Do not be so proud of yourself. I sing more than you do.”

Quote by S.Y. Agnon

Book:A City in Its Fullness
Create image

Work

A City in Its Fullness

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

S.Y. Agnon

Browse famous quotes and profile details for S.Y. Agnon. more

You May Also Like

“It was still raw and cold, but every now and then there would be a day, or an hour, or a moment, when the sun came out, and there was something different in the air: a sort of glimpsed fragrance, like when the kitchen door is opened for a second while the birthday cake is being baked. It was a smell of promise. The little brook bellowed hoarsely; there was a swelling at the joints of the twigs, and the first skunk cabbages appeared, brown cowls beside the brook. And at night, tinkling, jingling, gurgling, with high silvery notes, came the voices of the peepers. The dark was spangled with their voices.”

SpringSeasonsFrogs
Book:The Four-Story Mistake
Create image

“No one today can credibly claim to know how the future will turn out. I have been told that while all frogs begin their lives as tadpoles, not all tadpoles become frogs. It seems that in certain artificially controlled environments - and who will deny that our environments are increasingly artificial - some will remain tadpoles their entire lives. At this point in our cultural history we are becoming like the tadpoles of a new kind of humanity. It remains to be seen of one day we will become frogs.”

CultureHistoryFrogsTadpoles
Book:Juvenescence: A Cultural History of Our Age
Create image

“I joined Claudio on an expedition in search of one of the country’s most fabulous freaks, the incredibly rare Southern Darwin’s frog, which was discovered by the big beard himself in 1834 on his epic five year Beagle voyage. What makes this frog so extraordinary is that it has eschewed conventional pond-based metamorphosis for something more sci-fi: after mating the male guards the fertilized eggs until they are close to hatching, then gobbles them up. Six weeks later, like a scene out of Alien, he barfs up baby frogs. He is the only male animal other than the seahorse to give birth, albeit through his mouth.”

AnimalsFrogs
Book:The Unexpected Truth About Animals: A Menagerie of the Misunderstood
Create image

“But before examining this point [the third Meditation: 'the Existence of God'] more carefully and investigating other truths which may be derived from it, I should like to pause here and spend some time in the contemplation of God; to reflect on his attributes, and to gaze with wonder and adoration on the beauty of this immense light, so far as the eye of my darkened intellect can bear it. For just as we believe through faith that the supreme happiness of the next life consists solely in the contemplation of the divine majesty, so experience tells us that this same contemplation, albeit much less perfect, enables us to know the greatest joy of which we are capable of in this life.”

ReasonJoyFaithDescartesMeditations
Author:René Descartes
Create image