His struggle for a bare living left him no time to take advantage of the public evening school. In time he learned to read, to follow a conversation ….

Such creatures of accident are we, liable to a thousand deaths before we are born. But once we are here, we may create our own world, if we choose..

What we get in steerage is not the refuse, but the sinew and bone of all the nations..

We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to….

The czar always got his dues, no matter if it ruined a family..

One current of continuity runs underneath all the abortive phases of my life. From childhood on I have been obliged to drop anything I was doing to r….

There is never a Jewish community without its scholars, but where Jews may not be both intellectuals and Jews, they prefer to remain Jews..

A proper autobiography is a death-bed confession. A true man finds so much work to do that he has no time to contemplate his yesterdays; for to-day a….

Among the liveliest of my memories are those of eating and drinking; and I would sooner give up some of my delightful remembered walks, green trees, ….

There was one public school for boys, and one for girls, but Jewish children were admitted in limited numbers - only ten to a hundred; and even the l….

You heard on all sides that the brightest Jewish children were turned down if the examining officers did not like the turn of their noses..

On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be fined twenty-five rubles..

A proper autobiography is a death-bed confession..

It is only that my illusion is more real to me than reality. And so do we often build our world on an error, and cry out that the universe is falling….

A characteristic thing about the aspiring immigrant is the fact that he is not content to progress alone. Solitary success is imperfect success in hi….

The past was only my cradle, and now it cannot hold me, because I am grown too big..

The apex of my civic pride and personal contentment was reached on the bright September morning when I entered the public school..

It is painful to be consciously of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness. I am not afraid to live on and on, if only I do not have ….

A long past vividly remembered is like a heavy garment that clings to your limbs when you would run..

[I began to unload] the pyramid of honors, civic and literary, which had been heaped on me by the headlong process of rewarding a popular success. On….

You went up to be examined with the other Jewish children, your heart heavy about that matter of your nose..