Amos Oz Quotes

The grandeur of Jerusalem is also... its problem.

I would never call Jerusalem beautiful or comfortable or consoling. But there's something about it that you can't turn away from.

Here [in Jerusalem], no mercy is shown. One hates one's fellow man to the glory of God.

The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven.

First of all, my persuasion is what really breeds violence is political differences. But because religion serves as the soul of community, it gets drawn into the fracas and turns up the heat.

I am thankful that all the people in the world who absolutely, positively, know what God wants, usually kill mostly each other.

I feel most strongly about Jerusalem, because architects ultimately have to address that city.

To the stern student of affairs, Beirut is a phenomenon, beguiling perhaps, but quite, quite impossible.

Israel has its attractions. It's the most dramatic country in the world. Everybody's engaged. Everybody argues. When I leave Israel, I get a little bit bored, you know?

Everyone is tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they're probably worshiping the same god.

Jerusalem is a time bomb that I fear is just waiting to go off.

We had better dispense with the personification of evil, because it leads, all too easily, to the most dangerous kind of war: religious war.

Cults, or related social movements such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, result in massive military expenses.

Jewish extremism and Islamic fanaticism fed each other.

Verses of the Koran and of the Prophet are being isolated and used to justify violence.

And slay them (the infidels) wherever you catch them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out, for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter

There is not a Musselman [Moslem] alive who would not imagine that he was performing an action pleasing to God and his Holy Prophet by exterminating every Christian on earth, while the Christians are scarcely more tolerant on their side.

With the fundamentalist Islamic fanatics of today, there is no dialogue possible either, because for them all others are “infidel dogs”. As soon as the Other becomes a wrongdoer or an infidel, dialogue becomes impossible.

Most unfortunately, none among us arise as reformers save that they depart from moderation into extremism, and the call cannot succeed with extremism. The Wahhabis undertook reform, and their sect would be good were it not for their extremism and excess. What need is there for their call that the tomb of the Prophet be destroyed? Or their assertion that all other Muslims are infidels? Or that they must be extirpated?

The Middle East is a region where extremists go all the way and moderates just go away.

All extremists derive from one pool. This extreme mind-set is nurtured by religious rhetoric that needs to be reformed.

Acts of violence against one's own countrymen that are legitimated by religion are not new. Nor have such acts been unique to Islam.

The capital of Israel is Jerusalem, no matter what.

Religion is a big problem in Israel and the Arab world, but again, the problem isn't religion but political leaders who want to use the religion.

Our eternal capital Jerusalem was and remains our top national priority.