"Even if all other festivals vanish, not so the Day of Atonement." ~~ Safra
"The river of life…flows from birth toward death. Day follows day with wearisome monotony. Only the holidays twine themselves together to form the circle of the year. Only through the holidays does life experience the eternity of the river that returns to its source. Then life becomes eternal." ~~ Franz Rosenzweig
"The Sabbaths are for rest and the festivals for joy, not for fasting and weeping and crying." ~~ Maimonides
"Abhor not an Egyptian, for you were a stranger in his land! [Passover/Pesach]" ~~ Deuteronomy (Devarim) 23:8
"In Ne”ilah [the closing prayer] of Yom Kippur, what did he [the Cohen] say? “And Hashem will bless you from Zion and you will see the good of Jerusalem all of the days of your life.” " ~~ Talmud, Sotah 40a
"Jerusalem is like a city that people are friendly together; a city in which all [the people of] Israel are friends when the tribes ascend there for the pilgrimage. " ~~ Talmud Yerushalmi, Hagiga 3
"There were no days as glorious for the people of Israel as the fifteenth of Av [the Hebrew Month] and as Yom Kippur, when the daughters of Jerusalem would come outside with borrowed white garments and dance in the vineyards. " ~~ Talmud, Ta’anit 26b
"Who lodges a scholar in his home is as one offering first-fruits [Shavuot] in the Temple. " ~~ Leviticus (Vayikra) R.