Uplifting Hanukkah Quotes to Read This December

I have a feeling you’re really gonna like reading through these Hanukkah quotes. Actually, I know you’re gonna like these Hanukkah quotes, because even just sorting through my favorites and compiling them all here gave me the happiest, most optimistic feeling. I’ve included Hanukkah quotes about light, Hanukkah quotes about winter, inspiring Hanukkah quotes, and plenty of Hanukkah quotes that weren’t initially intended to be about the holiday, but fit the bill perfectly nonetheless.

I know we typically hear the whole “Hanukkah is a minor holiday” spiel around this time of year, but personally, I’ve never let that line of thinking diminish my own appreciation of the holiday. Hence the dedicated Hanukkah quotes post you find yourself on and the Hanukkah poems over here and, you know…*gestures at the 82341923 other Hanukkah posts everywhere you look.* There’s no denying that here in the U.S., Hanukkah’s status as a more “major” Jewish festival has a lot to do with its proximity to Christmas. But as long as we continue to give those true, actual “major” holidays their due, I don’t see anything wrong with playing up this one as well. And shouldn’t that be the ultimate aim? To have minor and major holidays celebrated with equal excitement and interest?

So! This year, I say: Don’t turn down any opportunities to celebrate or spread light. Or eat fried food. And don’t overthink the minor-major thing, either. Just dive into the indisputable beauty and meaning of the season…perhaps via the Hanukkah quotes compiled here. I hope each one reminds you why this special holiday really is worth all the fuss.

P.S. As always, drop me a line on IG if any of these Hanukkah quotes speak to you—I’d love to hear which one and why! And if you’re new here, I also have tons of other Hanukkah content to browse through—décor, crafts, recipes, poems, and much more.

“This is the season when people of all faiths and cultures are pushing back against the planetary darkness. We string bulbs, ignite bonfires, and light candles. And we sing.”
—Anita Diamant

“And just like that, like a simple neighborhood event, a miracle is taking place.”
—Mary Oliver

“We light candles in testament that faith makes miracles possible.”
—Nachum Braverman

“At this time of year, when the sun is most hidden, the holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the rays of hope and light. Often, it is through simple and unrecognized miracles that we are able to feel the warmth of hope and light.”
—Rafael Goldstein

“When we share something material, we are left with less of what we started. But currencies of spirit, elements such as light, love and knowledge, defy these physical conditions—they increase as they are shared and become eternal. On Chanukah when we use one flame to light another, the glow is not halved – the light is multiplied.”
—Micaela Ezra

“The proper response, as Hanukkah teaches, is not to curse the darkness but to light a candle.”
—Irving Greenberg

“There always were two ways to live in a world that is often dark and full of tears. We can curse the darkness or we can light a light, and as the Chassidim say, a little light drives out much darkness. May we all help light up the world.”
—Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l

“Just as Hanukkah candles are lighted one by one from a single flame, so the tale of the miracle is passed from one man to another, from one house to another, and to the whole House of Israel throughout the generations.”
—Judah Leon Magnes

“But I also say this: that light is an invitation to happiness, and that happiness, when it’s done right, is a kind of holiness, palpable and redemptive.”
—Mary Oliver

“A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.”
—James Keller

“To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, every cubic inch of space is a miracle.”
—Walt Whitman

“Hanukkah is about the freedom to be true to what we believe without denying the freedom of those who believe otherwise. It’s about lighting our candle, while not being threatened by or threatening anyone else’s candle.”
—Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l

“Sometimes, a flame can be utterly extinguished. Sometimes, a flame can shrink and waver, but sometimes a flame refuses to go out. It flares up from the faintest ember to illuminate the darkness, to burn in spite of overwhelming odds.”
—Karen Hesse, The Stone Lamp: Eight Stories Of Hanukkah Through History

“And as you lean into
Light, be gentle with the word ‘darkness.’
For more than it merely means wrong or bad,
it is also the color of a full, starless night sky,
and actual bodies of human beings
who have been overlooked too many times.
—Morgan Harper Nichols

“The lights of the Hanukkah menorah that we kindle in our homes are a reminder both of the Menorah in the Temple in Jerusalem and the light that shines brightly within each one of us. For as it says in Proverbs 20:27: The candle of G-d is the soul of man.”
—Libi Astaire

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
―Albert Einstein

“Hanukkah is about the spark of the divine in all of us made in G-d’s image.”
—Suzanne Fields

“When I use the flame of my faith to light a candle in someone else’s life, my Jewishness is not diminished. It grows, because there is now more Jewish light in the world. When it comes to spiritual goods as opposed to material goods, the more I share, the more I have. If I share my knowledge, or faith, or love with others, I won’t have less; I may even have more… So share your Judaism with others. Take the flame of your faith and help set other souls on fire.”
—Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l

“I can remember the menorah, reflected against the wintry darkness of the bay window in my parents’ living room, and the little mesh bags of chocolate Chanukah gelt, and the plastic dreidels I would spin and spin, alone on the floor. I received eight gifts during the holiday, a gift for every candle. Usually there was one big gift, like a basketball hoop for the backyard, and then lots of small ones, like mittens and socks. But Shirl’s story seems to be about a truer kind of gift: the gift of believing in miracles. And by telling it, she is giving a miracle to me.”
—Dani Shapiro

“On Hanukkah, some people ask: Why couldn’t we light all eight candles in one night instead of having to light a new one for each of eight nights? It is because Hanukkah is not merely a cause for celebrations; it is a trial of perseverance.”
—Simon Nguyen

“I like the size of the Hanukkah miracle; no parting of red seas, just a story about finding extra oil when you didn’t think had any and you really needed it and all the stores were closed. That’s the kind of miracle with which I am familiar, along with the miracle of good food and feeding people I love.”
—Anita Diamant

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Even in darkness it is possible to create light and encourage compassion. That it is possible to feel free inside a prison. That even in exile, friendship exists and can become an anchor. That one instant before dying, man is still immortal.”
—Elie Wiesel, Open Heart

“Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame. Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart.”
—Hannah Senesh

“The spirit of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is shared by all people who love freedom.”
—Norma Simon

“A little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness.”
—Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi

“Still ours the dance, the feast, the glorious psalm; the mystic lights of emblem, and the word.”
—Emma Lazarus

“A candle is a small thing. But one candle can light another. And see how its own light increases, as a candle gives its flame to the other. You are such a light.”
—Moshe Davis

“May we all be blessed with miracles wherever we need them.”
—Micaela Ezra

“For You light my flame; G-d illuminates my darkness.”
—King David, Psalms 18:29

“You can see religion as a battle, a holy war, in which you win a victory for your faith by force or fear. Or you can see it as a candle you light to drive away some of the darkness of the world. The difference is that the first sees other religions as the enemy. The second sees them as other candles, not threatening mine, but adding to the light we share. What Jews remembered from that victory over the Greeks twenty-two centuries ago was not a G-d of war but the G-d of light. And it’s only the G-d of light who can defeat the darkness in the human soul.”
—Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l

“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” –Anne Frank

“This Chanukah, the menorah will once again see light. And as I and my family light it, we will say a special prayer in honor of those whose memories it represents. We will not let its lights go out again.”
—Dr. Blair P. Grubb

“Light one candle for the strength that we need
To never become our own foe
And light one candle for those who are suffering
Pain we learned so long ago
Light one candle for all we believe in
That anger not tear us apart
And light one candle to find us together
With peace as the song in our hearts
Don’t let the light go out!
It’s lasted for so many years!
Don’t let the light go out!
Let it shine through our hope and our tears…”
—Peter, Paul and Mary, “Light One Candle”

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
—Edith Wharton

“The miracle, of course, was not that the oil for the sacred light—in a little cruse—lasted as long as they say; but that the courage of the Maccabees lasted to this day: let that nourish my flickering spirit.”
—Charles Reznikoff