Isaac Bashevis Singer > Quotes

“People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“I believe in God but people are liars. It's those people who say they are appointed by God who I don't believe in.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer

“To be a vegetarian is to disagree - to disagree with the course of things today... starvation, cruelty - we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement. And I think it's a strong one.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“Night is a time of rigor, but also of mercy. There are truths which one can see only when it’s dark”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer, Teibele and her demon

“Kindness, I’ve discovered, is everything in life.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“In their behavior toward creatures, all men are Nazis. Human beings see oppression vividly when they're the victims. Otherwise they victimize blindly and without a thought.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behaviour towards creatures, all men were Nazis. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer, Enemies: A Love Story

“Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression. The chasm is never completely bridged. We all have the conviction, perhaps illusory, that we have much more to say than appears on the paper.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer. ”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“We have to believe in free-will. We've got no choice.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“What do they know-all these scholars, all these philosophers, all the leaders of the world - about such as you? They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“There are 500 reasons I write for children.... Children read books, not reviews. They don't give a hoot about the critics.... They don't read to free themselves of guilt, to quench their thirst for rebellion, or to get rid of alienation. They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff.... They don't expect their beloved writer to redeem humanity. Young as they are, they know that it is not in his power. Only the adults have such childish illusions.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“What a strange power there is in clothing.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It's unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give. It is inconsistent. I can never accept inconsistency or injustice. Even if it comes from God. If there would come a voice from God saying, "I'm against vegetarianism!" I would say, "Well, I am for it!" This is how strongly I feel in this regard.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“Life is God's novel. Let him write it.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“We all play chess with Fate as partner. He makes a move, we make a move. He tries to checkmate us in three moves, we try to prevent it. We know we can't win, but we're driven to give him a good fight.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer

“A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind. ”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“The wastepaper basket is the writer’s best friend. ”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“When a writer tries to explain too much, he's out of time before he begins.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“We must believe in free will. We have no choice.”
― Isaac B. Singer

“What do these children do without storybooks?" Naftali asked.
And Reb Zebulun replied: "They have to make do. Storybooks aren't bread. You can live without them."
I couldn't live without them." Naftali said.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer, Naftali the Storyteller and His Horse, Sus: And Other Stories

“Sometimes love is stronger than a man's convictions. ”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“I don't study literature, I read it for enjoyment”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer, Conversations With Isaac Bashevis Singer

“Every human character appears only once in the history of human beings. And so does every event of love.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer, Love and Exile

“If you believe in God, then He exists.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer