Hannah's War Quotes

“The Torah talks about the Sabbath in different ways. We're told in Exodus to remember, zachor, and keep it holy. In Devarim, it says to observe, shamor, and keep it holy. Zachor speaks to the positive, the bread, wine, prayer, and song, everything we celebrate, eat and drink, and rejoice in. Shamor speaks to the negative - that which is prohibited, the work and play we set aside, the pleasures from which we abstain. This isn't to say these things are good or bad, Hannah. It does not refer to right or wrong. More like inhale and exhale. That which we choose to keep and that which we choose to let go - both are holy.”
― Jan Eliasberg, Hannah's War

“A time of war is a time of amplified connection and disconnection. Our allegiance to everything we love takes on a dangerous primacy, while our fear of everything we hate dons the sheep's clothing of righteousness.”
― Jan Eliasberg, Hannah's War

“The gut punch was the realization that he'd been wrong about the science. Duped by a woman. By a Jew.”
― Jan Eliasberg, Hannah's War

“It wasn't until we were able to sustain a chain reaction that we could be certain Einstein's theories were true." Oppenheimer’s gaze moved past the dancers to the dark mirror windows of the laboratory. "The work she did in Berlin, the work she brought to Chicago, that's the discovery that made the gadget feasible.”
― Jan Eliasberg, Hannah's War

“But there was something she'd forgotten or perhaps had never learned - knowledge and wisdom aren't the same. Wisdom grows in the deep recesses of the soul and is governed, not by the head, but by the heart.”
― Jan Eliasberg, Hannah's War

“As the boy grew, he applied himself to the understanding of science and life, but always the first more readily than the second, for science was the logical aim of his own passionate curiosity, and life was the mystic parabola that eluded his grasp every time he became certain he had solved the equation of its inevitable arc.”
― Jan Eliasberg, Hannah's War

“We do what we do because of a deep-seated thrill that follows a familiar path from awakened inkling to assiduous pursuit to compulsive repetition, repetition, repetition, to final fruition, an instant of overtaking that engulfs all conscious thought and spiritual capacity, the mental equivalent of physical climax.”
― Jan Eliasberg, Hannah's War

“Why didn't you turn on your heel and walk away?" Oppenheimer's remorseless gaze settled on the horizon. "I'll tell you why - no true scientist would walk away from the possibility of releasing the energy of matter itself, literally transforming the composition of things. Your'er the same as all of us. Our curiosity is boundless. Our morality is convenient.”
― Jan Eliasberg, Hannah's War