American Quotes

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

The intuition of free will gives us the truth.

The dynamic, creative present, however conditioned and restricted by the effects of prior presents, possesses genuine initiative.

The cause-effect sequences in our brains are just as determining, just as inescapable, as anywhere else in Nature.

The act of willing this or that, of choosing among various courses of conduct, is central in the realm of ethics.

Human beings and their actions constitute the advancing front, the surging crest of an ongoing movement that never stops.

Intuition does not in itself amount to knowledge, yet cannot be disregarded by philosophers and psychologists.

True freedom is the capacity for acting according to one's true character, to be altogether one's self, to be self-determined and not subject to outside coercion.

Most men, I am convinced, have an unmistakable feeling at the final moment of significant choice that they are making a free decision, that they can really decide which one of two or more roads to follow.

I believe firmly that in making ethical decisions, man has the prerogative of true freedom of choice.

He didn't work for money. He worked because he loved kids and education.

Politics, like theater, is one of those things where you've got to be wise enough to know when to leave.

Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want - and their kids pay for it.

Amnesty is a big billboard, a flashing billboard, to the rest of the world that we don't really mean our immigration law.

Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it.

Not all Modern Orthodox Jews, at the present juncture, identify with what the Israeli government does. In Israel many religious Zionists strongly oppose the government because of the disengagement.

My mother, whose family was heavily rabbinic, said she wanted me to continue the family tradition in the rabbinate. My father said he wanted me to be a scholar of the Talmud, but he wanted me to make my living in science.

Most students have thoughts about emigrating to Israel. A significant number go on aliyah. We are proud of our Israel programs, which come at a considerable cost to the university.

Most Modern Orthodox are religious Zionists. Despite all differences and nuances among us, we consider the founding of the State a historic change. We accept it as something that came from Providence.

Modern Orthodoxy has a highly positive attitude toward the State of Israel. Our Ultra-Orthodox brethren recognize only the Holy Land, but not the state.

Judaism is an intellectually based religion, and the single most important theme is that of study.

In Judaism, there are 613 biblical commandments, and the Talmud says that the chief commandment of all is study.

I was not the midwife of the Law School, but its fraternal twin.

I was critical of the Israeli government, however, for not being prepared for the move. One does not uproot thousands of people without planning in advance what will be done with them. This was a political and human error in which the government functioned poorly.

I think our vision heretofore has been and should continue to be to have Cardozo be the kind of law school that we can be proud of. I would like to see it gain recognition as one of the three best law schools in New York City.

I showed that privacy was an implicit right in Jewish law, probably going back to the second or third century, when it was elaborated on in a legal way.

However, the word madda in modern Hebrew specifically means science.

Conventional dogmas, even if endowed with the authority of an Aristotle - ancient or modern - must be tested vigorously. If they are found wanting, we need not bother with them. But if they are found to be substantially correct, we may not overlook them.

At Cardozo, study of law is part of a larger culture. You can get a law degree and make a good living, but it is best that you do that having studied the discipline for its own inherent merit, because you love studying.