A wise word is not a substitute for a piece of herring.
Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.
No matter how bad things get, you got to go on living, even if it kills you.
This is an ugly and mean world, and only to spite it we mustn’t weep. If you want to know, this is the constant source of my good spirit, of my humor. Not to cry, out of spite, only to laugh out of spite, only to laugh.
Love is a taste of paradise.
I will never permit myself to give in to American taste and lower the standards of art.
You see how it is, my dear friends. There’s no pleasing everyone. It’s hopeless to even try, and the more you play the peacemaker, the less peaceful things become.
When the heart is full it runs out of the eyes.
It is an old custom amongst Jewish children, to become war-like on the ‘L’ag Beomer.’ They arm themselves from head to foot with wooden swords, pop-guns and bows and arrows. They take food with them, and go off to wage war.
If you listen carefully, you get to hear everything you didn’t want to hear in the first place.
They say that children become men, and men become children. Many generations have grown up, become men, and gone hence.
A real pleasure is a pleasure that one enjoys by one’s self, without a companion, and without a single argument.
To make people laugh was almost a sickness with me.
Barking dogs don’t bite, but they themselves don’t know it.
If somebody tells you you have ears like a donkey, pay no attention. But if two people tell you, buy yourself a saddle.
I never turn down a drink. Among friends it’s always appropriate. A man is only a man as they say, but brandy is still brandy. You’ll find that in the Talmud too.
The worm in the radish doesn’t think there is anything sweeter.