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Theodore Bikel Quotes

Austrian-American singer-songwriter, Birth: 2-5-1924 Theodore Bikel Quotes
1.
No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.
Theodore Bikel

2.
Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?
Theodore Bikel

3.
Must we be put to shame by much smaller and poorer countries, by Ireland, France, Austria or Sweden, who have understood that a nation's support of its arts is a matter of both national pride and cultural survival?
Theodore Bikel

4.
I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.
Theodore Bikel

5.
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

Similar Authors: Taylor Swift Henry Rollins Bob Dylan John Lennon Dolly Parton Michael Jackson Patti Smith Moby Bruce Springsteen Marilyn Manson Leonard Cohen David Bowie Frank Zappa George Harrison Tori Amos
6.
By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.
Theodore Bikel

7.
I prefer to make common cause with those whose weapons are guitars, banjos, fiddles and words.
Theodore Bikel

8.
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

Quote Topics by Theodore Bikel: Art World Israel Play Song Giving Artist Believe Doubt Country People Causes Actors Moving Voice Hate Pride Theatre Roles Audience Language Granddaddy Past States Gun Wonderful Jewish Life Equality Tradition Retirement
9.
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

10.
After the advent of the written word, the masses who could not - or were not permitted to - read, were given sermons by the few who could.
Theodore Bikel

11.
No doubt unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed into being by mere declarations.
Theodore Bikel

12.
I created the role of Captain Von Trapp.
Theodore Bikel

13.
I am filled with awe that filmmakers have the capacity to stir us and give us back a sense of wonder.
Theodore Bikel

14.
As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.
Theodore Bikel

15.
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

16.
No movement can afford to be caught in a time warp and exist in a state of suspended animation.
Theodore Bikel

17.
While we all could agree that the Zionist ideal is alive and well, there is serious doubt whether the Zionist movement can be said to be an ongoing proposition, fragmented as its components are in ideology and in practice.
Theodore Bikel

18.
But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist.
Theodore Bikel

19.
I know for certain of only one commandment, one obligation, that God imposes upon us, and that is to be compassionate toward other human beings.
Theodore Bikel

20.
One might have thought the world would stop ascribing moral equivalence between acts of terrorism and acts of punishing terrorism. It has not happened that way.
Theodore Bikel

21.
I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.
Theodore Bikel

22.
What moves me is neither ethnocentric pride nor sectarian arrogance. I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures. But it is mine.
Theodore Bikel

23.
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

24.
We live in a world of guns, bombs and terror. To conquer hate seems a nigh-impossible task.
Theodore Bikel

25.
You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition.
Theodore Bikel

26.
I do not know who there is among us that can claim to know God's purpose and God's intent.
Theodore Bikel

27.
Despite a large body of work in films, TV, theatre and concerts, I am viewed by many as a Jewish artist. I do not resent the label, except for the fact that I disapprove of labels in general.
Theodore Bikel

28.
In my world, history comes down to language and art.
Theodore Bikel

29.
We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.
Theodore Bikel

30.
The play is always fresh to me. It's not the audience's fault that I've said the words before.
Theodore Bikel

31.
Retiring' - within that word is 'tiring,' and I'm not tired. I don't believe in retirement, really.
Theodore Bikel

32.
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

33.
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

34.
I am not, and have never been, in favor of boycotting Israel.
Theodore Bikel

35.
Accents. I'm very good with accents. I'm exceedingly good.
Theodore Bikel

36.
You learn more from the flops than from the hits.
Theodore Bikel

37.
'Visiting Mr. Green' is a good play. I enjoy being in it, and I have a wonderful colleague, Aidan deSalaiz, to work with. Audiences like it a lot. What's not to like?
Theodore Bikel

38.
When something is moving you get that intake of breath and that stillness from the audience.
Theodore Bikel

39.
There is no role I cannot play except a midget.
Theodore Bikel

40.
In my mind the city of Ariel is a thorn in Israel's side and a serious obstacle to peace.
Theodore Bikel

41.
It's a sad thing to contemplate, but I'm the last surviving cast member of 'The African Queen.'
Theodore Bikel

42.
You cannot please all of the people all of the time, and that is truer in the arts than anywhere else.
Theodore Bikel

43.
I do prefer the stage. It's really the granddaddy of them all.
Theodore Bikel

44.
You always draw on your experiences with live audiences to know how to do comedy on films. You're working for a laugh that may or may not come six months later, but you're working in a vacuum at the time you are doing it.
Theodore Bikel

45.
If I have one vanity wish, it would be to direct. It's the only thing I haven't done yet that I would like to.
Theodore Bikel

46.
I'm exceedingly proud of being an actor, but I never recommend it to anyone.
Theodore Bikel

47.
I always sang, I always acted, I always played.
Theodore Bikel

48.
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

49.
For I firmly believe that Jewish life, indeed any communal life, can only be organized according to democratic principles.
Theodore Bikel

50.
Every actor wants to direct and produce, but I made a conscious decision when I was in college to understand the 'business' of 'show business.'
Theodore Bikel