The rabbis of the Talmud and midrash did not only tell stories. They minted aphorisms, tight as coins, that still circulate in Jewish conversation two millennia later. Here are a dozen from the anthology.
Prayer is Israel's only weapon, a weapon inherited from our fathers, tried in a thousand battles. When the swords are taken away, prayer is still in the hand.
When the righteous die, they live, for their example lives. Biography is a kind of resurrection.
Let the fruit pray for the welfare of the leaf. The celebrated owe thanks to the unseen ones who fed them.
Meat without salt is fit only for the dogs. Learning without wisdom is meat without salt.
Trust not thyself until the day of thy death. The righteous man in the morning is not yet the righteous man at night.
Woe to the country which hath lost its leader; woe to the ship when its captain is no more.
He who increaseth his flesh but multiplieth food for the worms. A quiet rebuke to vanity of body.
The day is short, the labor great, and the workman slothful. Rabbi Tarfon's famous line, found in Pirkei Avot 2:15.
Be yielding to thy superior, affable toward the young, friendly with all mankind.
Silence is the fence round wisdom. From Pirkei Avot 3:13.
Without law, civilization perishes. Anarchy is not freedom.
Every man will surely have his hour. Patience is not passivity.
Rather be the tail among lions than the head among foxes. From Pirkei Avot 4:15.
Into the well which supplies thee with water, cast no stones. Do not insult the source that feeds you.
Many a colt's skin is fashioned to the saddle which its mother bears. The child grows up to serve the same masters as the parent, whether proud or not.
This collection, preserved in Hebraic Literature (1901), is the rabbinic instinct at its tightest: wisdom sharpened down to a sentence, small enough to carry all day.