David C. Russell

“In God's design, the Israelites and those of other nations who know God, could never be whole without each other. They were each a single note of a song, an instrument part of a great orchestra.”
― Christine Graef, To Light the Sabbath Candles: Reconciling One New Humanity at the Lord’s Table

“Some people, I am told, have memories like computers, nothing to do but punch the button and wait for the print-out. Mine is more like a Japanese library of the old style, without a card file or an indexing system or any systematic shelf plan. Nobody knows where anything is except the old geezer in felt slippers who has been shuffling up and down those stacks for sixty-nine years. When you hand him a problem he doesn't come back with a cartful and dump it before you, a jackpot of instant retrieval. He finds one thing, which reminds him of another, which leads him off to the annex, which directs him to the east wing, which sends him back two tiers from where he started. Bit by bit he finds you what you want, but like his boss who seems to be under pressure to examine his life, he takes his time.”
― Wallace Stegner, The Spectator Bird

“I'm a bluesman moving through a blues-soaked America, a blues-soaked world, a planet where catastrophe and celebration- joy and pain sit side by side. The blues started off in some field, some plantation, in some mind, in some imagination, in some heart. The blues blew over to the next plantation, and then the next state. The blues went south to north, got electrified and even sanctified. The blues got mixed up with jazz and gospel and rock and roll.”
― Cornel West, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, A Memoir

“The central statement of faith in Judaism is the Sh’ma, which reads: “Hear Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One.” Only in silence is it possible to hear.”
― Alan Morinis, Everyday Holiness: The Jewish Spiritual Path of Mussar