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I’ve been working on a radio project about the Russian humorist and storyteller, Sholom Aleichem, and while researching his life, I came across some quotes of his that you may enjoy. Like Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, and Oscar Wilde, there are so many quotable writings, that the problem becomes limiting oneself to only a few. Here are some of my favorites.

* “And books — she swallows like dumplings.”

* “While I kept playing chess with him, his mind was elsewhere. I took his queen and he took my Rose.”

* Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.

* The rich swell up with pride, the poor from hunger.

* When you die, others who think they know you, will concoct things about you… Better pick up a pen and write it yourself, for you know yourself best.

* No matter how bad things get you got to go on living, even if it kills you.

* A bachelor is a man who comes to work each morning from a different direction.

* If somebody tells you that you have ears like a donkey, pay no attention. But if two people tell you so, buy yourself a saddle.

* This is an ugly and mean world, and only to spite it we mustn’t weep. If you want to know, this is the constant source of my good spirit, of my humor. Not to cry, out of spite, only to laugh out of spite, only to laugh.

* A wise word is not a substitute for a piece of herring.

***

With thanks to the following websites:

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/sholom_aleichem

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/18362.Sholom_Aleichem

https://www.azquotes.com/author/210-Sholom_Aleichem