“A person who is discreet in speaking will be useful during the good times and will avoid punishment during the bad.”

“I want to be that person for him, I want to be the one who keeps him going during this difficult time.”

“By his good character, a believer will attain the degree of one who prays during the night and fasts during the day.”

“A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.”

“I am not a bad person. I am a good person who has lived in a bad time."
Alex's grandfather.. Everything is Illuminated”

“During sex, it is very difficult to deceive the other person because that is when each person shows who they really are.”

“The insufficiency of defining goodness as not hurting others is clearly demonstrated by the general assessment of the behavior of most Germans under the Nazis. According to this definition, most Germans during the Holocaust were good people, since they did not hurt anyone. Yet most of us do not consider such Germans good people, clearly indicating that we recognize the impossibility of defining a good person as one who does not hurt anyone.
You do not have to do something bad in order to do bad; you only have to do nothing.”

“During the feminist seventies men were caught between a rock and a hard-on; in the fathering eighties they are caught between good hugs and bad hugs.”

“If it does not grow, even though you are working hard, it is not because of unfavorable circumstances, bad timing, or bad luck. … of the past has shown, it is during the bad times that the skilled manager lays firm foundations for future growth.”

“It was OK, us being Reds during the war, because we were all on the same side. But then the Cold War started. Almost overnight we became enemies of people who were close friends — they crossed the street to avoid us.”