Shmuel Yosef Agnon quotes

For myself, I am very small indeed in my own eyes. (Shmuel Yosef Agnon)
But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Not every man remembers the name of the cow which supplied him with each drop of milk he has drunk. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
After all my possessions had been burned, God gave me the wisdom to return to Jerusalem. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
If we eat any food, or drink any beverage, we must recite a blessing over them before and after. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Our sages of blessed memory have said that we must not enjoy any pleasure in this world without reciting a blessing. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
I was five years old when I wrote my first song. It was out of longing for my father that I wrote it. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
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. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
The old man ... received the Sabbath with sweet song and chanted the hallowing tunefully over raisin wine; while it was still day he hallowed and the sun came to gaze at his glass. ... The table was well spread with all manner of fruit, beans, greenstuffs and good pies, plum water tasting like wine, but of flesh and of fish there was never a sign. ... in truth it is in no way obligatory to eat flesh and fish ... He and she, meaning the old man and the old woman, had never tasted flesh since growing to maturity. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
I have also written a book about the Giving of the Torah, and a book on the Days of Awe, and a book on the books of Israel that have been written since the day the Torah was given to Israel. (Shmuel Yosef Agnon)
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. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
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. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
The fate of the singers who, like my songs, went up in flame was also the fate of the books which I later wrote. All of them went up in flame to Heaven in a fire which broke out one night at my home in Bad Homburg as I lay ill in a hospital. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
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. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Our days on earth are like a shadow, and the time of our affliction is the length of our days. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Sometimes small things lead to great joys. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
A home from which you can be ejected at any time is no true home. View quote
Shmuel Yosef Agnon