Q0311

Talmudic tradition

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?
Thinker Talmudic tradition
School Jewish Tradition
Source Mishnah Avot 1: 14 (Hillel)
Theme Responsibility
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Mishnah Avot 1: 14 (Hillel), within the tradition of Jewish Tradition. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of responsibility, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Talmudic tradition's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Talmudic tradition. (n.d.). If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0311

MLA: Talmudic tradition. “If I am not for myself, who will….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0311.

Chicago: Talmudic tradition. “If I am not for myself, who will….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0311.

Same thinker

More from Talmudic tradition

  1. Teach your tongue to say, “I do not know.”
  2. It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.

All quotations by Talmudic tradition

Same theme

More on responsibility

  1. Justice is doing one's own work and not meddling in others'.
  2. Existence precedes essence.
  3. Man is condemned to be free.
  4. In choosing himself, man chooses all men.
  5. The Master said: The gentleman seeks it in himself; the petty person seeks it in others.

Browse the responsibility theme