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Oh,' She Said. 'i Have Never Seen A Jew Before. Can I See His Horns?
-Jonathan Safran Foer
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Oh,' She Said. 'i

Jonathan Safran Foer
...
Oh,' She Said. 'i Have Never Seen A Jew Before. Can I See His Horns?

Understanding the Quote: "oh,' she said. 'i have never seen a jew before. can i..."

This quote by Jonathan Safran Foer reflects deeply on the theme of horns. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Horns, Said, Jew, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Jonathan Safran Foer interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Jonathan Safran Foer

Jonathan Safran Foer is celebrated for insightful thoughts on horns and said. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Horns
Said
Jew
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I Started Inventing Things, And Then I Couldn't Stop, Like Beavers, Which I Know About. People Think They Cut Down Trees So They Can Build Dams, But In Reality It's Because Their Teeth Never Stop Growing, And If They Didn't Constantly File Them Down By Cutting Through All Of Those Trees, Their Teeth Would Start To Grow Into Their Own Faces, Which Would Kill Them. That's How My Brain Was.
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Food For Her Is Not Food, It Is Terror, Dignity, Gratitude, Vengeance, Joyfulness, Humiliation, Religion, History, And, Of Course, Love. As If The Fruit She Always Offered Us Were Picked From The Destroyed Brances Of Out Family Tree.
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Stories
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Knowing
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Track
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Past
Infinite
Paralyzed
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Keys
Doors
Able
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World
Bigs
Said
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Book
Real Life
Life Was A Small Negative Space Cut Out Of The Eternal Solidity, And For The First Time, It Felt Precious - Not Like All Of The Words That Had Come To Mean Nothing, But Like The Last Breath Of A Drowning Victim.
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Cutting
Space
Abraham Responds "here I Am" When God Asks Him To Sacrifice His Son, And He Answers "here I Am" When His Son Asks Him About What Is Happening. It's A Paradoxical Moment. He Can't Be Fully Present For His God Or His Son.
Son
Sacrifice
Here I Am
...people With Nothing To Declare Carry The Most.
Struggle
People
I'm A Novelist, I'm Not An Activist. I'm Not A Non-fiction Writer, I'm Not A Journalist. I'm Not A Foodie, I'm Not Even Really An Animal Person, Or An Environmentalist. I Did The Best I Could With This, But It's Not Who I Am.
Animal
Who I Am
Novelists
I Wasn’t Trying To Invent Better And Better Homes, But To Show Her That Homes Didn’t Matter, We Could Live In Any Home, In Any City, In Any Country, In Any Century, And Be Happy, As If The World Were Just What We Lived In.
Country
Home
Cities
Choosing Leaf Or Flesh, Factory Farm Or Family Farm, Does Not In Itself Change The World, But Teaching Ourselves, Our Children, Our Local Communities, And Our Nation To Choose Conscience Over Ease Can.
Children
Teaching
Community
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Looks
Want
Way
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Animal
Air
Hands
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Mean
I Hate
If It Had And Answer, It Wouldn't Really Be Love, Would It?
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Ifs
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Children
Matter
My Children
Every Night Before Putting Her To Sleep, Yankel Counts Her Ribs, As If One Might Have Disappeared In The Course Of The Day And Become The Seed And Soil For Some New Companion To Steal Her Away From Him.
Sleep
Night
Ribs
I Spent My Life Learning To Feel Less. Every Day I Felt Less. Is That Growing Old? Or Is It Something Worse? You Cannot Protect Yourself From Sadness Without Protecting Yourself From Happiness.
Sadness
Growing
Life Learning
It Was Not The Feeling Of Completeness I So Needed, But The Feeling Of Not Being Empty.
Life
Feelings
Emptiness
Memories Are Small Prayers To God, If We Believed In That Sort Of Thing.
Prayer
Memories
Ifs
You Can See The Most Beautiful Things From The Observation Deck Of The Empire State Building. I Read Somewhere That People On The Street Are Supposed To Look Like Ants, But That's Not True. They Look Like Little People. And The Cars Look Like Little Cars. And Even The Buildings Look Little. It's Like New York Is A Miniature Replica Of New York, Which Is Nice, Because You Can See What It's Really Like, Instead Of How It Feels When You're In The Middle Of It.
Beautiful
New York
Nice
We Are Not Long-term Beings. Not Heroes Of Romances In Many Volumes. For One Gesture, For One Word Alone, We Shall Make The Effort. We Openly Admit: Our Creations Will Be Temporary. We Shall Have This As Our Aim: A Gesture.
Hero
Long
Effort
He Removed Several Pages Of Death Certificates, Which Were Picked Up By Another Breeze And Sent Into The Trees. Some Would Fall With The Leaves That September. Some Would Fall With The Trees Generations Later.
Fall
Tree
Generations
Weeks Passed Like Boats Waiting To Sail Into The Starless Dawn, We Were Full Of Aimless Endless Darkness.
Bored
Waiting
Darkness
... The Man Took My Passport And Asked Me The Purpose Of My Visit, I Wrote In My Daybook, 'to Mourn,' And Then, 'to Try To Live,' He Gave Me A Look And Asked If I Would Consider That Business Or Pleasure, I Wrote, 'neither.' 'for How Long Do You Plan To Mourn And Try To Live?' I Wrote, 'for The Rest Of My Life.
Men
Long
Trying
There Are More Obese People In The World Than Starving People. As China And India Start To Develop Our Eating Habits - And Not By Accident But Because Agribusiness Is Going Over There And Imposing Our Habits On Them - If The Population Doesn't Increase At All, We'll Have To Raise Twice As Many Animals As We Do.
Animal
People
World
Ninety-eight Percent Of All The Soy That's Raised Goes To Livestock. So People Make Fun Of Vegetarians For Being Tofu Eaters, But No One Eats Tofu Like Steak Eaters, By A Long Shot. It's Also Funny That Tofu Is Held Up As What A Vegetarian Eats. I Mean Maybe I Eat Tofu Once A Month, But Other Than That, Never. All Of It, Statistically Speaking, Is Going To Livestock.
Fun
Mean
Ninety Eight
There Has Yet To Be A Human To Survive A Span Of History Without At Least One End Of The World.
World
End Of The World
Ends
...because He Had Been Waiting For Someone To Come Back To Him, So Every Time Someone Knocked On The Door, He Couldn't Stop Himself From Hoping It Might Be That Person, Even Though He Knew He Shouldn't Hope.
Doors
Waiting
Might
She Maintained A Careful Balance By Her Window, Never Allowing The Men To Come Too Close, Never Allowing Them To Stray Too Far.
Men
Balance
Window
I'd Lost Count Of The Disappointments.
Disappointment
Lost
I Flipped Back Through The Pad Of Paper While I Thought About What Stephen Hawking Would Do Next.
Paper
Next
Pads
I Missed You Even When I Was With You. That’s Been My Problem. I Miss What I Already Have, And I Surround Myself With Things That Are Missing.
Missing
Problem
I Missed You
I Saw Herschel And He Saw Me And We Stood Next To Each Other Because That Is What Friends Do In The Presence Of Evil Or Love.
Evil
Next
Saws
Everybody Knows The Competing Identities Of People Who Have Kids.
Kids
People
Identity
When We Eat Factory-farmed Meat We Live, Literally, On Tortured Flesh. Increasingly, That Tortured Flesh Is Becoming Our Own.
Vegetarianism
Meat
Flesh
Please Be Truthful, But Also Please Be Benevolent, Please.
Truthful
Being Truthful
Please
We Tried So Hard. We Were Always Trying To Help Each Other. But Not Because We Were Helpless. He Needed To Get Things For Me, Just As I Needed To Get Things For Him. It Gave Us Purpose. Sometimes I Would Ask Him For Something That I Did Not Even Want, Just To Let Him Get It For Me. We Spent Our Days Trying To Help Each Other Help Each Other. I Would Get His Slippers. He Would Make My Tea. I Would Turn Up The Heat So He Could Turn Up The Air Conditioner So I Could Turn Up The Heat.
Air
Always Trying
Tea
I Thought For A Minute, And Then I Got Heavy, Heavy Boots.
Boots
Minutes
Heavy
People Shouldn't Be Allowed To Get Married Until It's Too Late To Have Kids.
Kids
People
Too Late
I Am Not Sad, He Would Repeat To Himself Over And Over, I Am Not Sad. As If He Might One Day Convince Himself. Or Fool Himself. Or Convince Others -- The Only Thing Worse Than Being Sad Is For Others To Know That You Are Sad.
Being Sad
One Day
Might
I Felt It Very Moving To Feel His Touch, And To Remember That Hands Can Also Show Love.
Moving
Hands
Remember
She Avoids Mirrors, And Lifts A Powerful Telescope To Find Herself.
Powerful
Mirrors
Telescopes
I Believed Him. I Was Not Stupid. I Was His Wife.
Stupid
Wife
Not Stupid
I Thought About All Of The Things That Everyone Ever Says To Each Other, And How Everyone Is Going To Die, Whether It's In A Millisecond, Or Days, Or Months, Or 76.5 Years, If You Were Just Born. Everything That's Born Has To Die, Which Means Our Lives Are Like Skyscrapers. The Smoke Rises At Different Speeds, But They're All On Fire, And We're All Trapped.
Mean
Fire
Years
I'm Sorry For My Inability To Let Unimportant Things Go, For My Inability To Hold On To The Important Things.
Sorry
Unimportant Things
Inability
I'm Deeply Curious About Jewish Things. I've Toyed Around With The Idea Of Going To Rabbinical School.
School
Ideas
Curious
I Felt Suddenly Shy. I Was Not Used To Shy. I Was Used To Shame. Shyness Is When You Turn Your Head Away From Something You Want. Shame Is When You Turn Your Head Away From Something You Do Not Want.
Shy
Want
Shame
I Wondered, For The First Time In My Life, If Life Was Worth All The Work It Took To Live. What Exactly Made It Worth It?
Firsts
Made
Loud
It's True, I Am Afraid Of Dying. I Am Afraid Of The World Moving Forward Without Me, Of My Absence Going Unnoticed, Or Worse, Being Some Natural Force Propelling Life On. Is It Selfish? Am I Such A Bad Person For Dreaming Of A World That Ends When I Do? I Don't Mean The World Ending With Respect To Me, But Every Set Of Eyes Closing With Mine.
Death
Dream
Selfish
The Only Thing More Painful Than Being An Active Forgetter Is To Be An Inert Rememberer.
Painful
Active
We Aren’t Exactly Emptying The Oceans; It’s More Like Clear-cutting A Forest With Thousands Of Species To Create Massive Fields With One Type Of Soybean.
Ocean
Cutting
Soybeans
What Is Being Awake If Not Interpreting Our Dreams, Or Dreaming If Not Interpreting Our Wake?
Dream
Awake
Interpreting
I Don't Mind If Smiles Come At My Expense, I'm A Small Price To Pay.
Mind
Pay
Pun
Everything Else Happened - Why Not The Things That Could Have?
Why Not
Happened
I Always Write Out Of A Need To Read Something, Rather Than A Need To Write Something.
Writing
Needs
So Many Visitors Came To Rub And Kiss Different Parts Of Him For The Fulfillment Of Their Various Wishes That His Entire Body Had To Be Rebronzed Every Month. He Was A Changing God, Destroyed And Recreated By His Believers, Destroyed And Recreated By Their Belief... Those Who Prayed Came To Believe Less And Less In The God Of Their Creation And More And More In Their Belief.
Believe
Kissing
Wish
She Was So Beautiful, Like Someone Who You Will Never Meet, But Always Dream Of Meeting, Like Someone Who Is Too Good For You.
Beautiful
Dream
Meetings
Every Widow Wakes One Morning, Perhaps After Years Of Pure And Unwavering Grieving, To Realize She Slept A Good Night's Sleep, And Will Be Able To Eat Breakfast, And Doesn't Hear Her Husband's Ghost All The Time, But Only Some Of The Time. Her Grief Is Replaced With A Useful Sadness. Every Parent Who Loses A Child Finds A Way To Laugh Again. The Timbre Begins To Fade. The Edge Dulls. The Hurt Lessens. Every Love Is Carved From Loss. Mine Was. Yours Is. Your Great-great-great-grandchildren's Will Be. But We Learn To Live In That Love.
Good Night
Hurt
Morning
My Boots Were So Heavy That I Was Glad There Was A Column Beneath Us. How Could Such A Lonely Person Have Been Living So Close To Me My Whole Life? If I Had Known, I Would Have Gone Up To Keep Him Company.
Lonely
Gone
Boots
Dogs Are Wonderful, And In Many Ways Unique. But They Are Remarkably Unremarkable In Their Intellectual And Experiential Capacities. Pigs Are Every Bit As Intelligent And Feeling, By Any Sensible Definition Of The Words. They Can't Hop Into The Back Of A Volvo, But They Can Fetch, Run And Play, Be Mischievous, And Reciprocate Affection. So Why Don't They Get To Curl Up By The Fire? Why Can't They At Least Be Spared Being Tossed On The Fire?
Running
Dog
Intelligent
We Had Everything To Say To Each Other, But No Ways To Say It
Way
I Hated Myself For Going, Why Couldn't I Be The Kind Of Person Who Stays?
Kind
Hated
Persons
The Philosopher Elaine Scarry Has Observed That "beauty Always Takes Place In The Particular." Cruelty, On The Other Hand, Prefers Abstraction.
Hands
Philosopher
Cruelty
From The Movie "everything Is Illuminated" Based On A Book By Jonathan Safran Foer: I Have Reflected Many Times Upon Our Rigid Search. It Has Shown Me That Everything Is Illuminated In The Light Of The Past. It Is Always Along The Side Of Us, On The Inside, Looking Out. Like You Say, Inside Out. Jonathan, In This Way, I Will Always Be Along The Side Of Your Life. And You Will Always Be Along The Side Of Mine.
Book
Past
Light
The Hardest Part Of Writing Is Not To Get The Ideas But To Remember, Why It Is Important To Get Them.
Writing
Ideas
Important
There Were Things I Wanted To Tell Him. But I Knew They Would Hurt Him. So I Buried Them, And Let Them Hurt Me.
Hurt
Buried
Hurt Me
I Shook My Tambourine The Whole Time, Because It Helped Me Remember That Even Though I Was Going Through Different Neighborhoods, I Was Still Me.
Different
Remember
Neighborhood
Life Is Scarier Than Death.
Life Is
Whether We're Talking About Fish Species, Pigs, Or Some Other Eaten Animal, Is Such Suffering The Most Important Thing In The World? Obviously Not. But That's Not The Question. Is It More Important That Sushi, Bacon, Or Chicken Nuggets? That's The Question.
Animal
Pigs
Talking
In The End, Everyone Loses Everyone.
Ends
Loses
I Watched The Sheets Breathe When She Breathed, Like How Dad Used To Say That Trees Inhale When People Exhale, Because I Was Too Young To Understand The Truth About Biological Processes.
Dad
People
Tree
In The Morning, When The Nothing Vase Casts A Something Shadow, Like The Memory Of Someone You've Lost, What Can You Say About That?
Morning
Memories
Shadow
I Would Have Done Anything For Him. Maybe That Was My Sickness.
Done
Sickness
In Truth I Was Manufacturing A Brick Wall Of Shits.
Wall
Bricks
Brick Wall
I Observe, I Write, I Try Not To Remember The Life That I Didn't Want To Loose But Lost And Have To Remember, Being Here Fills My Heart With So Much Joy, Even If The Joy Isn't Mine, And At The End Of The Day I Fill The Suitcase With Old News.
Writing
Heart
Joy
I Did Not Need To Know If He Could Love Me. I Needed To Know If He Could Need Me.
Needs
Needed
Knows
My Greatest Fear Is Feeling Like A Professional Novelist. Somebody Who Creates Characters, Who Sits Down And Has Pieces Of Paper Taped To The Wall - What's Going To Happen In This Scene, Or This Act. What I Like Is For It To Be A Much More Scary, Sloppy Reflection Of Who I Am.
Wall
Character
Reflection
We Believed In Our Grandmother’s Cooking More Fervently Than We Believed In God.
Grandma
Grandmother
Cooking
Songs Are As Sad As The Listener.
Music
Song
Sadness
If It Weren't My Life, I Wouldn't Have Believed It.
Ifs
The Sky Slowly Pulled Up Its Blue Dress To Reveal Night.
Night
Blue Dress
Sky
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