Shmuel Yosef Agnon

It is not enough for a man to dwell in the Land of Israel, he must also pray to be free.

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Our sages of blessed memory have said that we must not enjoy any pleasure in this world without reciting a blessing. If…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Sometimes small things lead to great joys.

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Who were my mentors in poetry and literature? This is a matter of opinion. Some see in my books the influences of…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

I am generally ashamed to walk out in new clothes. And why am I ashamed? Is it because I don't want to…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

If I am proud of anything, it is that I have been granted the privilege of living in the land which God…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Our days on earth are like a shadow, and the time of our affliction is the length of our days.

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

When I first began to combine letters other than Hebrew, I read every book in German that came my way, and from…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

The fate of the singers who, like my songs, went up in flame was also the fate of the books which I…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Not every man remembers the name of the cow which supplied him with each drop of milk he has drunk.

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

But perhaps the truth newly discovered is itself only temporary and when new discoveries are made these truths too will be abandoned.…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

I have also written a book about the Giving of the Torah, and a book on the Days of Awe, and a…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

God in heaven sits on high and plays games with us. He has plenty to do up there, what with building worlds…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

I was five years old when I wrote my first song. It was out of longing for my father that I wrote…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

At the age of nineteen and a half, I went to the Land of Israel to till its soil and live by…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

A home from which you can be ejected at any time is no true home.

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

If we breathe the scent of goodly grass, the fragrance of spices, the aroma of good fruits, we pronounce a blessing over…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

After all my possessions had been burned, God gave me the wisdom to return to Jerusalem.

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

People's talk and the stories they tell have been engraved on my heart, and some of them have flown into my pen.

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

For myself, I am very small indeed in my own eyes.

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

If we eat any food, or drink any beverage, we must recite a blessing over them before and after.

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Through a historical catastrophe - the destruction of Jerusalem by the emperor of Rome - I was born in one of the…

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Our sages of blessed memory have said that we must not enjoy any pleasure in this world without reciting a blessing.

— Shmuel Yosef Agnon