Harry Bernstein > Quotes

“We're not very different from one another, not different at all in fact. We're all just people with the same needs, the same desires, the same feelings. It's a lie about us being different.”
― Harry Bernstein, The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers

“We're not very different from one another, not different at all, in fact. We're all just people with the same needs, the same desires, the same feelings. It's a lie about us being different. It's something they cooked up so we'd be fighting one another instead of them, the ones who keep us down and make their fortunes off our labor, the same ones who send us off to war when they get to fighting among themselves over the spoils. You'll find that out someday. They'll be calling on you to go to war for them, you can be sure of that, because there's going to be lots more wars in the future. I got in one myself, as you know. I saw men getting killed and wounded and crippled, and I must have killed a lot of men myself, and I'm just sick every time I think of it. Why? Because we were fighting one another instead of those who'd sent us out there. Oh, they're clever, those capitalists. It's hard to beat them at their game. They've fooled us with words like patriotism and duty and honor, and they've got us divided up into classes and religions so that each one of us figures he's better than the other. But it'll all change, 'arry. Believe me, it will. People get smarter. The human brain has a potential for development. Someday it will grow big enough so that everybody will see and understand the truth, and then we won't act like a bunch of sheep, and then that wall that separates the two sides of our street will crumble.”
― Harry Bernstein, The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers

“There aren't many clean places left in this dirty world of ours.”
― Harry Bernstein, The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers

“A sense of peace came over me and I must have been smiling as I fell asleep.”
― Harry Bernstein, The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers

“People get smarter. The human brain has a potential for development. Some day it will grow big enough so that everybody will see and understand the truth, and then we won't act like a bunch of sheep, and then that wall separates the two sides of us will crumble, just like the wall of Jericho.”
― Harry Bernstein, The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers

“What wonderful things dreams are! They can make you be anything you want and take you anyplace in the world.”
― Harry Bernstein, The Golden Willow: The Story of a Lifetime of Love

“But in that first flush of victory and happiness and relief, and God knows what other emotions were involved in this great moment, we were all very much one, and we were all in a state of euphoria, drunk with our happiness.”
― Harry Bernstein, The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers

“The women cried with one another, and it didn't seem to matter whether you were Jewish or Christian, you just mourned.”
― Harry Bernstein

“There is one more touch that I have added to make it all complete. This is a bronze plaque that I had made for the bench. It has the names of Ruby and myself inscribed on it, and underneath are the words that express my feelings about Ruby and our life together. They come from the immortal Helen Keller, who more than anyone knew the true meaning of love. What we once enjoyed and deeply loved, we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us.”
― Harry Bernstein, The Golden Willow: The Story of a Lifetime of Love

“THE WORLD IN WHICH I WAS LIVING WHEN THE BOOK WAS PUBLISHED was vastly different from the one that I had written about. It was, after all, nearly a hundred years later. Advances had been made in every field—science, medicine, industry, transportation. We were enjoying greater material comforts in life, and we were experiencing greater longevity, so people like myself could be in their nineties and still function in as normal a fashion as young people, and even write books. But there were some things that hadn't changed, and one of them was human nature and the wars that it brought on.”
― Harry Bernstein, The Golden Willow: The Story of a Lifetime of Love

“[W]e were fighting one another instead of those who'd sent us there. Oh, they're clever these capitalists. It's hard to beat them at their game. They've got us fooled with words like patriotism and duty and honor, and they've got us divided up into classes and religions so that each one of us figures he's better than the other.”
― Harry Bernstein

“Yes, I'd gone through that fantasy many times before, dreaming of having a book published and becoming a famous author, seeing my book displayed in bookstore windows, being interviewed by reporters, being asked for my autograph. What wonderful things dreams are! They can make you be anything you want and take you anyplace in the world. And some of them can actually come true, as this one had for me. In the meantime, I sat on that bench near the lake wishing it had all taken place”
― Harry Bernstein, The Golden Willow: The Story of a Lifetime of Love

“Mrs. Abrams, huddled in her shawl, nodded vigorously. “It’s like a shul in here sometimes. I come myself, especially on a rainy day, and when the fire is lit it’s nice and cozy, and we sit and talk for hours.” “Do you have a good oven?” the baker asked. “Do I have a good oven?” my mother cried. “I have a wonderful”
― Harry Bernstein, The Dream: A Memoir

“Anyway,”
― Harry Bernstein, The Invisible Wall

“who read The Invisible Wall and wrote asking for this book.”
― Harry Bernstein, The Dream: A Memoir

“But there are few rules or unwritten laws that are not broken when circumstances demand,”
― Harry Bernstein, The Invisible Wall

“Mostly his talk extolled the virtues of bagels. He believed they were healthy, good for you, but more than that, he believed they were a symbol of Jewish unity, that they brought Jews together and reminded them of their heritage. Furthermore, he went on, English Jews had been deprived of bagels for generations, and he felt it was his religious duty to bring bagels to them.”
― Harry Bernstein, The Dream: A Memoir

“Saul is going to be a rabbi.” She said it with pride,”
― Harry Bernstein, The Dream: A Memoir