The Jewish Wisdom Database

Anxiety kills even the most heroic of heroes.

If it be as clear to you as the light of morn, say it! If it be not, say it not!

The force of a compromise is greater than of a judgment.

A warning to courts: not to hear one litigant before the other comes.

One should not ask about demons on the Sabbath.

It is forbidden to dwell in a town without a doctor.

If you do not know what there is on earth, do you expect to know what there is in heaven?

Exile atones for everything. Exile expiates sins.

If a man does not make himself a slave of the soil, he will not have bread enough.

Who raises his hand against a friend is wicked even if he does not strike him.

An intelligent man can be recognized by his expressions.

The punishment of a liar is that, even when he speaks the truth, none believe him.

Whoever causes the loss of a single soul is as though he caused the loss of a world entire, and whoever saves one is as though he saved a universe.

The Messiah, son of David, will only come in a generation that is neither wholly righteous nor wholly wrong.

In for a penny, in for a pound.

You do not punish without warning first.

You can stop a quarrel before it starts!

Who quarrels with his teacher might as well quarrel with the Holy Presence.

Two dogs were bad friends. One day the wolf attacked one of them. Quoth the other: 'If I do not help him today, the wolf will destroy him and tomorrow attack me.' So they joined forces and killed the wolf.

When a righteous man is born, it is a boon to the world; when one dies it is a bane.

Who declines to endow a scholar with his worldly goods will see no blessing.

A man with no sense deserves no pity.

If a man is told to commit all the sins in the Torah to save his life, let him obey, save for idolatry, incest and the shedding of blood.

No man should lead himself into temptation.

If a thief finds nothing to steal, he thinks himself honest.