Today is the birthday of Chaim Potok (February 17, 1929 - July 23, 2002), author, philosopher, artist and rabbi. He is best known for his first book The Chosen."We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what values is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye? A blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest."
— Chaim Potok
". . .everything has a past. Everything – a person, an object, a word, everything. If you don’t know the past, you can’t understand the present and plan properly for the future."
— Chaim Potok
"Seeds must be sown everywhere. Only some will bear fruit. But there would not be the fruit from the few had the many not been sown"
— Chaim Potok
"Art begins . . . when someone interprets, when someone sees the world through his own eyes. Art happens when what is seen becomes mixed with the inside of the person who is seeing it."
— Chaim Potok
"Truth has to be given in riddles. People can't take truth if it comes charging at them like a bull. The bull is always killed. You have to give people the truth in a riddle, hide it so they go looking for it and find it piece by piece; that way they learn to live with it."
— Chaim Potok
Potok image source (1)
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