Unorthodox Quotes

“As far as I can remember, I have always wanted everything from life, everything it can possibly give me. This desire separates me from people who are willing to settle for less. I cannot even comprehend how people's desires can be small, ambitions narrow and limited, when the possibilities are endless”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“I can't bear the thought of living an entire lifetime on this planet and not getting to do all the things I dream of doing, simply because they aren't allowed. I don't think it will ever be enough, this version of freedom, until it is all-inclusive. I don't think I can be happy unless I'm truly independent.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“I'd rather believe in reincarnation than hell. The idea of an afterlife is much so more tolerable when returning is an option.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“If my mind cannot be tied down, if my dreams cannot be diminished, then no amount of restraints can really guarantee my quiet submission.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“Subconsciously, I have started to say goodbye to the people and objects in my life as if preparing to die, even though I have no real plan. I just feel strongly, in my gut, that I'm not meant to stay here.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“Can anyone survive without faith, however its labeled? No matter how you live, it seems, you need faith to get by, to get ahead.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“I feel so extraordinarily happy and free when I read that I’m convinced it could make everything else in my life bearable, if only I could have books all the time.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“I am not aware at this moment that I have lost my innocence. I will realize it many years later. One day I will look back and understand that just as there was a moment in my life when I realized where my power lay, there was also a specific moment when I stopped believing in authority just for its own sake and started coming to my own conclusions about the world I lived in.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“There is always a happy ending in children’s books. Because I have not yet begun to read adult books, I have come to accept this convention as a fact of life as well. In the physics of imagination, this is the rule: a child can only accept a just world. I waited for a long time for someone to come along and rescue me, just like in the stories. It was a bitter pill to swallow when I realized that no one would ever pick up the glass slipper I left behind.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“I feel so extraordinarily happy and free when I read that I’m convinced it could make everything else in my life bearable.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“If you are forced to confront your fears on a daily basis, they disintegrate, like illusions when viewed up close.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“Until the stifling heat of summer sets in, my neighborhood is suspended in momentary perfection, a fantasy filled with swirling gusts of pink and white petals that rain down on the sunlit pavement.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“I am convinced that my ability to feel deeply is what makes me extraordinary, and that is my ticket to Wonderland.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“For a while I thought I could un-Jew myself. Then I realized that being Jewish is not in the ritual or the action. It is in one's history. I am proud of being Jewish, because I think that's where my indomitable spirit comes from, passed down from ancestors who burned in fired of persecution because of their blood, their faith.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“Bubby scoffs at my question. A Jew can never be a goy, she says, even if they try their hardest to become one. They may dress like one, speak like one, live like one, but Jewishness is something that can never be erased. Even Hitler knew that.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“I resolve to venture into the city on my own. I look at maps in the library—subway maps, bus maps, and regular maps—and try to memorize them. I’m afraid of getting lost; no, I’m afraid of sinking into the city as in a quicksand, afraid of getting sucked into something I can never escape.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“Will he be able to tell, when he sees me, how truly wonderful I am? Will he want me?”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“Can you ever really leave the place you come from? Isn’t it best to stay where you belong, rather than risk trying to insert yourself somewhere else and failing?”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“I talk to him in my mind, and even I will admit that I do not come to God humbly, as I should. I talk to him frankly, as I would to a friend, and I’m constantly asking him for favors.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“The true name for God is devastatingly holy and evocative; to utter it would represent a death wish, so we have safe nicknames for him instead: the Holy Name, the One, the Only, the Creator, the Destroyer, the Overseer, the King of All Kings, the One True Judge, the Merciful Father, Master of the Universe, O Great Architect, a long list of names for all his attributes.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“To be freed from the prison of staying still.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“One day I will look back and understand that just as there was a moment in my life when I realized where my power lay, there was also a specific moment when I stopped believing in authority just for its own sake and started coming to my own conclusions about the world I lived in.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“I cannot be one of those girls who fritters away her entire life in this small, stifling square of tenements, when there is an entire world out there waiting to be explored. I don’t know how, but maybe my escape will be accomplished in small, steady steps, like Francie’s. Maybe it will take years. But I know, with great certainty, that it will be.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“For a woman of such intelligence and wit, surely it is beneath her dignity to parade herself in front of the most distinguished of men, in hopes of a few morsels of attention.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“I too want to be such a woman, who works her own miracles instead of waiting for God to perform them.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“The books he claims are treacherous serpents have become my close friends.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“I am convinced that my ability to feel deeply is what makes me extraordinary,”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“An empty vessel clangs the loudest.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“I don’t want to fight for anything. I want to just be and do, with no one saying they’re letting me.” —From The Romance Reader, by Pearl Abraham”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

“Why did I decide to speak up? Someone had to do it, and it turned out to be me.”
― Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots