Mimi and Opa In the City: Gentle on my Mind

SOME OF MIMI'S FAVORITE TEVYE QUOTES FROM FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

You may ask, how did this tradition get started? I'll tell you. I don't know.

[to God] You made many many poor people, I realize of course it's no shame to be poor, but it's no great honor either. Now what would be so terrible if I had a small fortune?

Because of our traditions, every one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do.

[to God] I know, I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can't You choose someone else?

[to God] Sometimes I wonder, when it gets too quiet up there, if You are thinking, "What kind of mischief can I play on My friend Tevye?"

[to God] It may sound like I'm complaining, but I'm not. After all, with Your help, I'm starving to death.

[to God] As the good book says...aaahh, why should I tell you what the good book says?

" I saw behind me those who had gone, and before me, those who are to come. I looked back and saw my father, and his father, and all our fathers, and in front, to see my son, and his son, and the sons upon sons beyond. And their eyes were my eyes. As I felt, so they had felt, and were to feel, as then, so now, as tomorrow and forever. Then I was not afraid, for I was in a long line that had no beginning, and no end, and the hand of his father grasped my father's hand, and his hand was in mine, and my son took my right hand, and all, up and down the line that stretched from time that was, to time that is, and is not yet, raised their hands to show the link, and we found that we were one, born of woman, son of man, made in the image, fashioned in the womb by the will of god, the eternal father."

from "How Green was My Valley"
by Richard Llewellyn