Theodore Bikel – 16 Quotes

16 Quotes by Theodore Bikel

Having come to live in this age is as though one were to have entered another country. Learn its language or risk being left out.

– Theodore Bikel

We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.

– Theodore Bikel

In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them – unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event.

– Theodore Bikel

No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.

– Theodore Bikel

I tried for a while to be an agricultural worker and was hopelessly bored. I would stand around in heaps of manure and sing about the beauty of the work I wasn’t doing.

– Theodore Bikel

I tried for a while to be an agricultural worker and was hopelessly bored. To me it was meaningless. I would stand around in heaps of manure and sings about the beauty of the work I wasn’t doing.

– Theodore Bikel

But there is a difference here: When Jewish children are murdered, Arabs celebrate the deed. The death of an Arab child is no cause for celebration in Israel.

– Theodore Bikel

I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.

– Theodore Bikel

Although I am deeply grateful to a great many people, I forgo the temptation of naming them for fear that I might slight any by omission.

– Theodore Bikel

On the stage you’re there, it’s live. There’s a beginning, a middle, an end. When something is funny you hear it right away.

– Theodore Bikel

As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.

– Theodore Bikel

I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.

– Theodore Bikel

Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?

– Theodore Bikel

In my mind the city of Ariel is a thorn in Israel’s side and a serious obstacle to peace.

– Theodore Bikel

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.

– Theodore Bikel

You can’t expect the entire world to come to New York to see you. You have to travel to them.

– Theodore Bikel