Shmuel Yosef Agnon Quotes

Not every man remembers the name of the cow which supplied him with each drop of milk he has drunk.

At the age of nineteen and a half, I went to the Land of Israel to till its soil and live by the labour of my hands. As I did not find work, I sought my livelihood elsewhere.

Our days on earth are like a shadow, and the time of our affliction is the length of our days.

Through these offices it was my privilege to get to know almost every Jewish person, and those whom I did not come to know through these offices I came to know through love and a desire to know my brethren, the members of my people.

If we breathe the scent of goodly grass, the fragrance of spices, the aroma of good fruits, we pronounce a blessing over the pleasure.

It is not enough for a man to dwell in the Land of Israel, he must also pray to be free.

I am generally ashamed to walk out in new clothes. And why am I ashamed? Is it because I don't want to embarrass the others who don't have new things? Or perhaps because a new coat makes you stand out, and you seem to be clothes and nothing else.

If I am proud of anything, it is that I have been granted the privilege of living in the land which God promised our forefathers to give us, as it is written.

When I first began to combine letters other than Hebrew, I read every book in German that came my way, and from these I certainly received according to the nature of my soul.

If we eat any food, or drink any beverage, we must recite a blessing over them before and after.

God in heaven sits on high and plays games with us. He has plenty to do up there, what with building worlds and then knocking them down again, breaking things up and then rebuilding them, and yet he can manage to put his mind even to a little grocer in his shop or to a babe in the cradle.

Our sages of blessed memory have said that we must not enjoy any pleasure in this world without reciting a blessing.

I was five years old when I wrote my first song. It was out of longing for my father that I wrote it.

I belong to the tribe of Levi.

The beginnings of my studies also came to me from my father, as well as from the Rabbinical Judge of our town. But they were preceded by three tutors under whom I studied, one after the other, from the time I was three and a half till I turned eight and a half.

A home from which you can be ejected at any time is no true home.

I returned to Jerusalem, and it is by virtue of Jerusalem that I have written all that God has put into my heart and into my pen.

For myself, I am very small indeed in my own eyes.