Isaac Bashevis Singer citations

Isaac Bashevis Singer est un écrivain juif polonais naturalisé américain, né le 21 novembre 1902 à Leoncin sur le territoire polonais sous l'occupation russe et décédé le 24 juillet 1991 à Surfside près de Miami, en Floride.

Auteur de romans en yiddish, il reçoit le prix Louis Lamed à deux reprises, puis le National Book Award en 1970 pour un ouvrage de littérature d'enfance et de jeunesse, puis en 1974 . Il reçoit également le prix Nobel de littérature en 1978 « pour son art de conteur enthousiaste qui prend racine dans la culture et les traditions judéo-polonaises et ressuscite l'universalité de la condition humaine. ». Wikipedia  

✵ 21. novembre 1902 – 24. juillet 1991   •   Autres noms ఐజక్ బెషెవిస్ సింగర్
Isaac Bashevis Singer photo

Œuvres

Le Magicien de Lublin
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac Bashevis Singer: 42   citations 0   J'aime

Isaac Bashevis Singer citations célèbres

Isaac Bashevis Singer: Citations en anglais

“To be a vegetarian is to disagree — to disagree with the course of things today. Starvation, world hunger, cruelty, waste, wars — we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement. And I think it’s a strong one.”

Preface to Food for the Spirit: Vegetarianism and the World Religions by Steven Rosen (New York: Bala Books, 1987, )
Variante: To be a vegetarian is to disagree - to disagree with the course of things today... starvation, cruelty - we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement. And I think it's a strong one.
Contexte: Vegetarianism is my religion. I became a consistent vegetarian some twenty-three years ago. Before that, I would try over and over again. But it was sporadic. Finally, in the mid-1960s, I made up my mind. And I've been a vegetarian ever since. When a human kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. Man prays for mercy, but is unwilling to extend it to others. Why should man then expect mercy from God? It's unfair to expect something that you are not willing to give. … This is my protest against the conduct of the world. To be a vegetarian is to disagree — to disagree with the course of things today. Nuclear power, starvation, cruelty — we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement. And I think it's a strong one.

“We must believe in free will — we have no choice.”

An ironic statement which Singer made in many interviews over many years; here quoted in "Isaac Singer’s Promised City" http://www.city-journal.org/html/7_3_urbanities-isaac.html City Journal (Summer 1997)
Variants or variant translations:
We must believe in free will — we have no other choice.
You must believe in free will; there is no choice.
We have to believe in free will. We’ve got no choice.
This makes more sense if you consider the statement "we must believe in free will; we have no [other logical] choice"

“Not only has our generation lost faith in Providence but also in man himself, in his institutions and often in those who are nearest to him.”

Nobel lecture (1978)
Contexte: Not only has our generation lost faith in Providence but also in man himself, in his institutions and often in those who are nearest to him. In their despair a number of those who no longer have confidence in the leadership of our society look up to the writer, the master of words. They hope against hope that the man of talent and sensitivity can perhaps rescue civilization. Maybe there is a spark of the prophet in the artist after all.

“The storyteller and poet of our time, as in any other time, must be an entertainer of the spirit in the full sense of the word, not just a preacher of social or political ideals. There is no paradise for bored readers and no excuse for tedious literature that does not intrigue the reader, uplift him, give him the joy and the escape that true art always grants.”

Nobel lecture (1978)
Contexte: The storyteller and poet of our time, as in any other time, must be an entertainer of the spirit in the full sense of the word, not just a preacher of social or political ideals. There is no paradise for bored readers and no excuse for tedious literature that does not intrigue the reader, uplift him, give him the joy and the escape that true art always grants. Nevertheless, it is also true that the serious writer of our time must be deeply concerned about the problems of his generation. He cannot but see that the power of religion, especially belief in revelation, is weaker today than it was in any other epoch in human history. More and more children grow up without faith in God, without belief in reward and punishment, in the immortality of the soul and even in the validity of ethics. The genuine writer cannot ignore the fact that the family is losing its spiritual foundation.

“I am a vegetarian for health reasons—the health of the chicken.”

Singer was very devoted to the vegetarian cause and was frequently quoted as saying this statement, as reported in Judaism and Vegetarianism by Richard H. Schwartz (New York: Lantern Books, 2001, ISBN 1-930051-24-7), p. 177 https://books.google.it/books?id=zo5TqKQVcEgC&pg=PA177

“Life is God's novel. Let him write it.”

Quoted in Voices for Life (1975) edited by Dom Moraes

“Even in love, people betray themselves. And when you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself. I would say a great part of human history is a history of self-betrayal and betrayal of others.”

" Isaac Bashevis Singer's Universe http://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/03/archives/isaac-bashevis-singers-universe-errors-and-betrayals.html" by Richard Burgin in The New York Times (3 December 1978)

“Take three quarts of duck's milk…”

First words of a "recipe for high-priced cookies" in Stories for Children (1984)

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