The Books of Jacob Quotes

“Asher Rubin thinks that most people are truly idiots, and that it is human stupidity that is ultimately responsible for introducing sadness into the world. It isn’t a sin or a trait with which human beings are born, but a false view of the world, a mistaken evaluation of what is seen by our eyes. Which is why people perceive every thing in isolation, each object separate from the rest. Real wisdom lies in linking everything together—that’s when the true shape of all of it emerges.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“If people could read the same books, they would inhabit the same world.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“A thing that is not talked about ceases to exist.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“Ludzie mają potężną potrzebę, żeby czuć się lepszymi od innych. Nieważne, kim są, muszą mieć kogoś, kto byłby gorszy od nich.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, Księgi Jakubowe

“Then, however, Mayer thought it fitting to remind her of the most important thing:

'Between the heart and the tongue lies an abyss,' he said. "Remember that. Thoughts must be concealed, particularly since you were born, to your great misfortune, a woman. Think so that they think you are not thinking. Behave in such a way that you mislead others. We all must do this, but women more so. Talmudists know about the strength of women, but they fear it .... But we don't ... because we ourselves are like women. We survive by hiding. We play the fools, pretending to be people we are not. We come home, and then we take off our masks. But we bear the burden of silence: masa duma.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“Some people have a sense of unearthly things, just as others have an excellent sense of smell or hearing or taste. They can feel the subtle shifts in the great and complicated body of the world. And some of these have so honed that inner sight that they can even tell where a holy spark has fallen, notice its glow in the very place you would least expect it. The worse the place, the more fervently the spark gleams, flickers— and the warmer and purer is its light.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“Isn't this the very glue that holds the human world together? Isn't this why we need other people, to give us the pleasure of knowing we are better than they are? Amazingly, even those who seem to be the worst-off take, in their humiliation, a perverse satisfaction in the fact that no one has it worse than they do. Thus they have still, in some sense, won.

Where does this all come from? Asher wonders. Can man not be repaired? If he were a machine, as some now argue, it would suffice to adjust one little lever slightly, or to tighten some small screw, and people would start to take pleasure in treating one another as equals. ”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“God created man with eyes in the front, not the back of the head, and that means we’ve got to think about what’s to come, not what has been.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“Słowa są jak jaszczurki, potrafią uciec z każdego zamknięcia.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, Księgi Jakubowe

“What is life, after all if not dancing on graves?”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“Jacob has begun to introduce himself not as before, not as Yankiele Leybowicz, but as Jacob Frank. Frank is what Jews from the west are called in Nikopol; that’s what they call his father-in-law and his wife, Hana. Frank, or Frenk, means foreign. Nahman knows Jacob likes this – being foreign is a quality of those who have frequently changed their place of residence. He’s told Nahman that he feels best in new places, because it is as if the world begins afresh every time. To be foreign is to be free.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“Czy ludzie niecierpliwi nie przypominają duchów, które nigdy nie są tu, w tym miejscu, i teraz, w tej właśnie chwili, ale wystawiają głowę z życia jak ci wędrowcy, którzy podobno, gdy znaleźli się na końcu świata, wyjrzeli poza horyzont.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, Księgi Jakubowe

“Prawda jest jak sękacz, składa się z wielu warstw, które kręcą się wokół siebie, raz siebie zawierają, a raz same są zawierane przez inne. Prawda to jest coś, co można wyrażać wieloma opowieściami, bo jest jak ten ogród, do którego weszli mędrcy: każdy widział co innego.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, Księgi Jakubowe

“W Polsce jest inaczej. Niech kuzynka popatrzy, Polska to kraj, gdzie wolność religijna i nienawiść religijna w równym się stopniu spotykają. Z jednej strony Żydzi mogą tu praktykować swoją religię, jak chcą, mają swoje swobody i sądownictwo własne. Z drugiej zaś nienawiść do nich jest tak wielka, że samo słowo „Żyd” jest w poniewierce i dobrzy chrześcijanie używają go jako przekleństwa.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, Księgi Jakubowe

“Nie ma tu nikogo, Bóg stworzył świat i umarł z wysiłku.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, Księgi Jakubowe

“It is written that there are three things that do not come if you are thinking of them: the Messiah, lost objects, and scorpions.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“Everyone who seeks salvation must do three things: change his place of residence, change his name, and change his deeds.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“Asher Rubin thinks that most people are truly idiots, and that it is human stupidity that is ultimately responsible for introducing sadness into the world. It isn’t a sin or a trait with which human beings are born, but a false view of the world, a mistaken evaluation of what is seen by our eyes. Which is why people perceive every thing in isolation, each object separate from the rest. Real wisdom lies in linking everything together – that’s when the true shape of all of it emerges.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“Być obcym to być wolnym. Mieć za sobą wielką przestrzeń, step, pustynię. [...] Mieć swoją historię, nie dla każdego, własną opowieść, napisaną śladami, jakie zostawia się po sobie.
Wszędzie czuć się gościem, domy zasiedlać tylko na jakiś czas, nie przejmować się sadem, raczej cieszyć się winem, niż przywiązywać do winnicy. Nie rozumieć języka, przez co widzieć lepiej gesty i miny, wyraz ludzkich oczu, emocje, które pojawiają się na twarzach niby cienie chmur. Uczyć się cudzej mowy od początku, w każdym miejscu po trochę, porównywać słowa i znajdować porządki podobieństw.
Trzeba tego stanu uważnie pilnować, bo daje ogromną moc.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, Księgi Jakubowe

“Gdyby umieć spojrzeć tak, jak Jenta to widzi, zobaczyłoby się, że w istocie świat składa się ze słów, które raz powiedziane, roszczą sobie odtąd pretensje do wszelkiego porządku i wszystko wydaje się dziać pod ich dyktando, wszystko im podlega.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, Księgi Jakubowe

“У тому, що ти чужий, є якась радість, привабливість. Це — наче ласощі. Добре воно: не розуміти мови, не знати звичаїв, блукати, як дух, серед інших — далеких, незбагненних. Тоді прокидається особлива мудрість: уміння здогадуватися, ловити неочевидне.
Прокидаються кмітливість і уважність. Чужий віднаходить особливий кут зору і хоч-не-хоч стає своєрідним мудрецем.
Хто переконав нас, що бути своїм — так добре і зручно?
Лише чужий по-справжньому розуміє, яким є світ.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“Ашер уже давно зрозумів: люди мають величезну потребу почуватися кращими за інших. Байдуже, хто вони самі: їм усе одно потрібен хтось, хто був би гіршим за них. Те, хто є гіршим, а хто кращим, залежить від безлічі випадковостей.
Ясноокі ставляться зверхньо до темнооких. Другі ж позирають із погордою на перших. Ті, що живуть біля лісу, відчувають якусь вищість над тими, що мешкають біля ставка, і навпаки. Селяни згори дивляться на євреїв, євреї зверхньо поглядають на селян. Міщани почуваються кращими за мешканців сіл, а селяни вважають себе кращими за міщан.
Хіба ж не це обʼєднує людський світ? Чи не для того нам потрібні інші люди, аби ми раділи, що є за них кращи-ми? А найдивніше, що навіть ті, хто перебуває на самому 367
дні, знаходять собі якусь дивну втіху, гадаючи, що їхня упо-слідженість є найбільшою чеснотою.
Чому воно так, питає себе Ашер. Невже не можна людину змінити? Якби вона була машиною, як ото дехто тепер каже, то досить було б у ній пересунути важіль чи докрутити маленький шруб, і люди почали б радіти тому, що всі вони рівні.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“The first thing every neophyte must understand is that God, whatever he is, has nothing in common with humankind, and that he remains so far away as to be completely inaccessible to the human senses. The same is true of his intentions. At no point will people ever learn what he is up to.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“It’s just like what they say about lightening; It’s safest to stand where it has already struck.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“… the world itself demands to be narrated, and only then does it truly exist, only then can it flourish fully. But also that by telling the story of the world, we are changing the world.
That is why God created the letters of the alphabet, that we might have the opportunity to narrate to him what he created. Reb Mordke always chuckled at this. “God is blind. Did you not know that?” he would say. “He created us that we would be his guides, his five senses.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“The further north you go, the more people concentrate on themselves, and in some sort of northern madness (no doubt due to the lack of sun) they ascribe to themselves too much. They make themselves responsible for their actions.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“After all, the Jewish historian Josephus maintains the world was created in the autumn, at the autumn equinox. A reasonable notion, since of course there were fruits in paradise; given the apple hanging from the tree, it must indeed have been autumn…”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“I took to heart what Isohar had taught us. He said that there are four types of readers. There is the reading sponge, the reading funnel, the reading colander, and the reading sieve. The sponge absorbs everything it comes into contact with; and it is evident he remembers much of it later, too. But he is not able to filter out what is most important. The funnel takes in what he reads at one end, while at the other, everything he's read pours out of him. The strainer lets through the wine and keeps the sediment; he ought not to read at all -- it would be infinitely better if he simply dedicated himself to some manual trade. The sieve, on the other hand, separates out the chaff, to give a result of only the finest grains.

'I want you to be like sieves, and to discard all that is not good or interesting,' Isohar would say to us.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“Those of us who think God addresses us by means of external events are wrong, as naive as children. For he whispers directly into our innermost souls.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

“There is something wonderful in being a stranger, in being foreign, something to be relished, something as alluring as sweets. It is good not to be able to understand a language, not to know the customs, to glide like a spirit among others who are distant and unrecognizable. Then a particular kind of wisdom awakens—an ability to surmise, to grasp the things that aren't obvious. Cleverness and acumen come about. A person who is a stranger gains a new point of view, becomes, whether he likes it or not, a particular type of sage. Who was it who convinced us that being comfortable and familiar was so great? Only foreigners can truly understand the way things work.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob