"Even during the time of Jerusalem’s stumbling, men of faith did not cease from [living] there. " ~~ Talmud: Shabbat 119b
"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
"The Jerusalem of this world is not like the Jerusalem in the next world [in Heaven]. The Jerusalem of this world, anyone who wants to ascend there, may ascend; but the one of the next world, only those who are prepared for it may ascend. " ~~ Talmud, Bava Batra 75b
"One who stands [in prayer] in Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel) should direct his heart towards Jerusalem, if he was standing in Jerusalem, he should direct his heart towards the holy Temple. " ~~ Talmud, Berakhot 27a
"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
"Without Jerusalem, the Land of Israel is as a body without a soul." ~~ Elhanan L. Levinsky
"A betrothed girl in Jerusalem does not need to adorn herself with the scent of incense. " ~~ Talmud, Yoma 39b
"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its cunning!" ~~ Psalms (Tehillim) 137:5
"No city in the world, not even Athens and Rome, ever played as great a role in the life of a nation for so long a time, as Jerusalem has done in the life of the Jewish people." ~~ David Ben-Gurion
"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember thee not, if I prize not Jerusalem above all my joys!" ~~ Psalms (Tehillim) 137:6
"Who prays in Jerusalem is as one praying before the Throne of Glory, for the Gate of Heaven is there." ~~ Pirke Derabbi Eliezer
"Ten measures of beauty were given the world, nine were taken by Jerusalem and one by all the rest." ~~ Talmud, Kiddushin