Isaac Abarbanel Quotes
Isaac Abarbanel was a Spanish-Portuguese Jewish philosopher, statesman, and biblical commentator of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, who served as treasurer to King Alfonso V of Portugal and to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain before being expelled with his community in the great Sephardic exile of 1492. His commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, written in the years of his wandering through Italy, fused Maimonidean philosophical exegesis with a strong messianic and political-philosophical reflection occasioned by the expulsion. The quotes below are attributed to Isaac Abarbanel, organized by topic.
Isaac Abarbanel on God
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Attributed to Isaac Abarbanel:
“Messianic hope is not the abandonment of present politics; it is the form in which present politics keeps faith with the future.”
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Attributed to Isaac Abarbanel:
“The wise reader of the Torah is also a reader of his own age.”
Isaac Abarbanel on Knowledge
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Attributed to Isaac Abarbanel:
“Exile is a sharper teacher than any classroom.”
Isaac Abarbanel on Politics
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Attributed to Isaac Abarbanel:
“A people without a homeland must carry its commonwealth in its books.”
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Attributed to Isaac Abarbanel:
“What we have lost in Iberia we may yet build in our minds and in our communities.”