The Jewish Wisdom Database

For many afflictions, silence is the best remedy.

Press your lips together: don't be in a hurry to answer.

The man who slanders hurts three people: the man slandered, the man to whom the slander is uttered---and himself.

It is a duty to say what should be heard, and a duty not to say what should not be heard.

A good man who speaks evil is like a palace next to a tannery: one defect destroys all the grandeur.

Even if a man is a rabbi, when his father enters, the son must rise [in the presence of his pupils].

God loves those who do not insist upon their privileges.

He who studies but does not repeat his lessons is as one who plants but does not enjoy the fruit.

Study is worth as much as ritual sacrifice.

When a student knows that his teacher is able to answer him, he may ask a question; otherwise, he should not.

Where wisdom enters, subtlety accompanies it.

Before you take leave of a friend, offer some serious comment (in philosophy or law) so that he will remember you thereby.

He who teaches a child is as if he had created it.

In teaching, do not favor the children of the rich---and teach the children of the poor without compensation.

The bad teacher's words fall on his pupils like harsh rain; the good teacher's, as gently as the dew.

The man from whom people learn must be especially strict with himself.

A man without a wife has no defense against temptation.

Never put yourself in temptation's path; for even King David could not resist it.

Be grateful to your parents; had they not been tempted, you wouldn't be here.

For a Jew to cheat a Gentile is worse than cheating a Jew; for in addition to violating the moral law, it brings Jews into contempt.

It is not the mouse but the hole that's the thief.

To rob one's fellow of a penny may be as bad as robbing him of his life.

Do not steal your property back from a thief, lest you seem a thief yourself.

Though a plague last seven years, no one dies before his time.

The words of the Torah are compared to water, wine, and milk (Isaiah 55:1), because just as these are kept only in the simplest of vessels, so the Holy Words are preserved in the humblest of men.