25 The Chosen Quotes From the Classic Novel

Check out The Chosen quotes from the classic novel about two fathers and sons and the pressure put on the sons by the fathers.

The Chosen is a novel that was written by Chaim Potok and published by Simon and Schuster in 1967.

The book’s plot takes place in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1940s and focuses on fifteen-year-olds Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders and their fathers.

While Reuven and Danny are seen as enemies at first, as they clash with each other as players on opposing baseball teams, the teens soon become good friends.

While Danny’s father, Rabbi Reb Saunders, wants Danny to take over as Rabbi, Reuven’s father wants Reuven to pursue academia.

The boys are both talented high achievers, but Reuven would rather pursue becoming a rabbi, while Danny wants to pursue psychology.

Take a look at these The Chosen quotes to learn more about the inspirational book.

The Best The Chosen Quotes 

Check out some of the best The Chosen quotes. 

1. “Then he spoke his son’s name.” — Chaim Potok

2. “A word is worth one coin; silence is worth two.” — Chaim Potok

3. “There are better ways to teach a child compassion.” — Chaim Potok

4. “How will I teach this mind what it is to have a soul?” — Chaim Potok

5. “‘I have no choice,’ he said again. ‘It’s like a dynasty.” — Chaim Potok

6. “When a person comes to talk to you, you should be patient and listen.” — Chaim Potok

7. “I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it.” — Chaim Potok

8. “‘No one knows he is fortunate until he becomes unfortunate,’ my father said quietly.” — Chaim Potok 

9. “The blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something.” — Chaim Potok

10. “My son is my most precious possession. I have nothing in the world compared to my son.” — Chaim Potok

Thought-Provoking The Chosen Quotes 

Take a look at these thought-provoking quotes from the novel.

11. “A teacher can also sometimes not know.” — Chaim Potok

12. “A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something.” — Chaim Potok

13. “One learns of the pain of others by suffering one’s own pain … by turning inside oneself.” —  Chaim Potok

14. “You think a friend is an easy thing to be? If you are truly his friend, you will discover otherwise.” — Chaim Potok

15. “Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye if we measure our lives against eternity.” — Chaim Potok

16. “I stood there, tasting the room and the sunlight and the sounds, and thinking of the long hospital ward. . . Somehow everything had changed.” — Chaim Potok 

17. “As you grow older, you will discover that the most important things that will happen to you will often come as a result of silly things, as you call them—‘ordinary things’ is a better expression.” — Chaim Potok

More The Chosen Quotes 

Here are more of The Chosen quotes. 

18. “Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things.” — Chaim Potok

19. “People are not always what they seem to be . . . That is the way the world is.” — Chaim Potok

20. “I had spent five days in a hospital, and the world around seemed sharpened now and pulsing with life.” — Chaim Potok

21. “I stood in that room for a long time, watching the sunlight and listening to the sounds on the street outside.” — Chaim Potok 

22. “How will I teach this mind to understand pain? How will I teach it to want to take on another person’s suffering?” — Chaim Potok

23. “I lay still and thought about my eyes. I had always taken them for granted, the way I took for granted all the rest of my body and also my mind.” — Chaim Potok

24. “Someone was playing piano nearby, and the music drifted slowly in and out of my mind like the ebb and flow of ocean surf. I almost recognized the melody, but I could not be sure; it slipped like a cool and silken wind from my grasp.” — Chaim Potok

25. “When a trout rising to a fly gets hooked on a line and finds himself unable to swim about freely, he begins with a fight which results in struggles and splashes and sometimes an escape. Often, of course, the situation is too tough for him.” — Chaim Potok

What Happens to Reuven and Danny?

Reuven and Danny attend college together, and by the time they are Seniors, they have decided to pursue their own paths.

Both of their fathers end up approving of their child’s decisions, and the father and son relationships improve.

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