Jonathan Safran Foer Quotes

Why does anyone do anything? Belief. A belief that they are right and just in their actions. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, because he believed that God had commanded it. To kill your son is unthinkable. A crime. But if you are acting in the belief that your God, your supreme deity whom you must obey, has demanded it of you, is it still a crime?

Contradictory to my religion, I think, is journalism.

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?

I kept quiet for eight years. I did not want to hurt the church.

This contradiction lies here: they wish God, and they wish humanity. They persist in connecting two terms which, once separated, can come together again only to destroy each other.

How did Abraham know that it was God that bid him offer his son, being a breach of the sixth commandment?

I had to choose, I'd be so sad. They are flip sides of the same coin. I love both comedy and drama.

Life itself is controversy.

I have fervently been on both sides of that question at different times.

I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.

Sometimes ‘tis necessary to be cruel in order to be kind.

The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.

Do what you will, this world's a fiction and is made up of contradiction.

The best ideas make you want to say 'yes' and 'no' in the same breath.

I feel like humans, when you're faced with decisions, you can go up and down: duality.

It was not to save a nation that Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, nor to appease angry gods... Then why does Abraham do it? For God's sake... He does it for the sake of God because God demands proof of his faith... He was not justified by being virtuous, but by being an individual submitted to God in faith.

Zounds! sir, you are one of those that will not serve God if the devil bid you.

Oh, but Masha, can’t you see? You are. An Ivan has come. That is like saying, Midnight has struck. It is time for bed, little one. You cannot have both. In war you must always choose sides. One or the other. Silver or black. Human or demon. If you try to be a bridge laid down between them, they will tear you in half.

When it all comes down to dust I will kill you if I must , I will help you if I can. When it all comes down to dust I will help you if I must, I will kill you if I can.

My business is to obey when the Lord commands, and this is the duty of all mankind.

A man cannot serve God and Mammon, nor be "temperate and furious" at the same time.

Abraham is trying to obey God, but not to kill. I feel that moment is one of the defining moments of Jewish faith.

One can't have it both ways and both ways is the only way I want it.

You will, Judas, my brother. God will give you the strength, as much as you lack, because it is necessary—it is necessary for me to be killed and for you to betray me. We two must save the world. Help me." Judas bowed his head. After a moment he asked, "If you had to betray your master, would you do it?" Jesus reflected for a long time. Finally he said, "No, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to. That is why God pitied me and gave me the easier task: to be crucified.