Quarantine Notes: Aphorisms on Morality and Mortality

by Yahia Lababidi

"Yahia Lababidi's work is characterized by a contemplative tone in line with Rumi, whom he often quotes. Lababidi is a Muslim voice for peace, celebrating the wisdom in ancient traditions and pointing out the ridiculous in the rush and cynicism of contemporary life. Drawn to the mystic tradition, he often refers to the virtues and fruits of silence, and writes that his aphorisms 'respect the wisdom of silence by disturbing it, briefly.' Perhaps an age as thoughtless and noisy as our own requires a whole book full of them." - Plough magazine

Genres: Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2023

About the author

Yahia Lababidi is an acclaimed Arab-American writer of Palestinian heritage, author of more than a dozen books of aphorisms, poetry, essays, and conversations. His work unites Eastern mysticism, Western philosophy, and Arab heritage to explore life’s enduring questions: love, faith, suffering, and self-discovery.

His newest books are On the Contrary: Wilde & Nietzsche (Fomite Shorts, 2025), a meditation on two contrarians who turned life into art and thought into moral adventure, and What Remains to Be Said (Wild Goose Publications, 2025), a career-spanning collection of aphorisms written over three decades. Philosophical yet poetic, these reflections offer clarity and consolation in a time of noise, conflict, and distraction.

Lababidi’s Palestine Wail (Daraja Press, 2024) is a love letter to Gaza, praised by Naomi Shihab Nye and translated into seven languages. His poems for Palestine have been read at literary festivals across the world and shared in classrooms and vigils alike.

Earlier works include Quarantine Notes (Fomite Press, 2023), written during the global pandemic; Desert Songs (Rowayat, 2022); Learning to Pray: A Book of Longing (Kelsay Books, 2021); and Revolutions of the Heart (Wipf & Stock, 2020). His acclaimed aphorism collections Signposts to Elsewhere and Where Epics Fail were endorsed by President Obama’s inaugural poet, Richard Blanco, who called Lababidi “the current-day master of the aphorism.”

His writing has appeared on PBS NewsHour, NPR, ABC Radio, On Being with Krista Tippett, Best American Poetry, The Guardian, and World Literature Today. A five-time Pushcart nominee, Lababidi has spoken at Oxford University and served as a juror for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant.

Reviews

[Ruben · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, I want to express my appreciation to Yahia Lababidi for providing me with a copy of his Quarantine Notes which contain over 500 aphorisms on morality and mortality.

Lababidi very cleverly and poetically makes us reflect upon our values and the vulnerability of our being. I felt compelled to highlight several aphorisms that really echoed in me and which I have every intention to keep handy when in need.

I believe that most of the aphorisms contained in Lababidi's book are applicable to all of us at some extent and that they can also be a reminder of where we started and how far we've come, especially after what we've gone through during this past couple of years.

Although there were many aphorisms I loved, I'll only quote one my favorite ones.

"We are careful with what we eat and drink so as not to poison our body -yet we do not consider how what we consume through our eyes or ears might corrupt our spirit."

All in all, quite a highly enjoyable read!

[Ian Payton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t really have a frame of reference for reviewing this. I’m not familiar with Lababidi’s works, nor aphorisms in general, but I found this collection inspirational. My thoughts are more eloquently summarised in the Afterword by Andrew Benson Brown:

Yahia Lababidi […] somehow manages not to be trite or shallow in his appraisals, and even to be the opposite. His wisdom has an ancient quality that speaks to the present about its future.

…and…

This book […] encourages one to contemplate brevity by quarantining Lababidi’s sayings, mirroring the condition of their creation. Lababidi himself puts it in a way that nicely reflects the volume’s organization: “Aphorisms are the sushi of literature.” A large bite, carefully prepared by a master chef, delicately savored. Wrapped in white space like rice, each piece’s placement on the page helps cleanse the palate like a slice of ginger, preparing one for the next bite. Though readers will inevitably douse their sushi in the soy sauce of their peculiar, accidentally-acquired prejudices, the author would encourage light dipping so as to not overwhelm the natural flavor of each insight.

Lababidi is clearly very spiritual, and this comes across in many of the aphorisms. While I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself that way, I found that even those aphorisms that had an overt spiritual nature still spoke to me in a way that I found relevant.

I took a long time to read this, as I wanted to savour each morsel. And I’m glad I did. And I will almost certainly revisit it.

[Jean-Paul Thuot · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book - every page lands like a hammer on the door of our hearts, calling for us to open to the divine. I found that I needed to put the book down after each page or two in order to allow the deep wisdom to settle into me, but also that I could not put it down for long. If you are seeking a connection to your own sense of spirit, this book is a must. Like the best haiku, the author's aphorisms bring you directly to the present with pithy yet poetic bits of wisdom that will speak to you at every moment. Highly recommended. I will be ordering more to give as gifts, shortly.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given an ecopy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

I found Quarantine Notes very refreshing and hopeful. On every page I found myself agreeing with at least something and many times I was texting the aphorisms to others because I found them remarkably relevant.

Each of the aphorisms begs thought and I found myself also thinking about how each one applies to me. It’s not a book to fly through. The author gives the metaphor of aphorisms being sushi - to be savored not shoveled down. I completely agree. It is nice that someone finding hope during one of humanity’s worst times is willing to share his thoughts.

This is an excellent collection. Some of the aphorisms will not appeal to every reader. I certainly didn’t agree with every single one. But it has something that will appeal to everyone in different ways and for that I really appreciate this.

[Sandra Mather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yahia has an ability to cut through our pretensions to the heart of what it means to be a human being in these trying times. I find myself referencing his aphorisms in conversations because many of them are iconic. I have read nearly every one of his books thus far and am grateful for the gift he is to this world and to my life.

[Karim Wafa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quarantine Notes
Review by Karim Wafa

Reading Quarantine Notes was like a journey back in time, mixing the wisdom of Greek philosophy, with the Islamic Sufi writings of Rumi. There were so many emotions that I felt rise up within me and inspire me at the same time.

As I was taking it all in, Yahia’s aphorisms managed to touch on subjects that we all think about, go through, or live with. It can be hard to put emotions and wisdom together, but Yahia’s work showed me that through small, and even at times minute sentences, verses of knowledge can trickle down into the mind of the modern reader in a surprisingly gentle and yet meaningful fashion.

One thing which might strike the reader only if they continue to submerge themselves in the verses of Yahia’s writings, is that the more one progresses from page to page, the more one realizes that every aspect of our everyday lives is immersed in art and mysticism. The only thing preventing us from realizing it is giving attention to the minute details that modern man tends to skim over and ignore.

Towards the middle of the book, one comes face-to-face with verses that blend ancient philosophy immersed in a stoic setting of abstinence, while also talking about the beauty and power of love, which pushes one to question our true desires and ponder on the nature of the human experience.

It can be hard to reconnect with ourselves and the wider world in a society that is constantly evolving and shifting from day-to-day, however the aphorisms in Quarantine Notes really do manage to strike us as both obvious but also hidden away beneath the magical veil of life.

It seems as if the book can be treated as some sort of travel companion, that the reader can solicit whenever he or she is feeling lost in a world that is constantly striving for utmost perfection and spotlessness. Giving attention to aspects of our personalities and wider selves that we might tend to ignore, are pillars of the journey of self-love and personal understanding.

[Nicolas FitzGerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

The aphorisms are brief and poignant, and they often convey a lot of meaning with few words. Lababidi's writing is insightful and full of deep wisdom. He really makes you think and has a gift for imparting complex ideas simply and elegantly. I think that anyone who enjoys reading aphorisms will find Quarantine Notes very enjoyable to read.

I enjoyed reading this book but I think perhaps I'm not quite the right audience for a book of aphorisms. It's not the sort of thing I read very often these days. So while it was an interesting read that did make me think I'm not sure I can give it five stars which I reserve for books I absolutely loved and couldn't put down and so have gone with four stars now. I had put three stars originally but that was too low.

[ES Michelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who among us hasn’t had a sudden insight or a revelation about the nature of being or one’s individual purpose that has arisen in a hot instant, that has incandescently illuminated the vast plane of reality, even for just a few moments, only to have this manifestation sublime from consciousness to the emptiness of its origin?

This is the purpose of aphorism: to set the deepest personal and spiritual insights into permanence through the abstraction of language. Yahia Lababidi’s latest, Quarantine Notes, is a valuable manifestation of his revelatory transformations during the Covid-19 pandemic when he wrote in his prologue that, “for the first time in recent history, we were presented with inescapable reality of our interdependence.”

This interdependence, as we know, spanned the personal to the political. Some of us learned, for example, that trust and cooperation were the necessary preconditions to fight a global plague. Some of us learned about our interdependence upon “essential workers,” those we had mostly taken for granted that keep us safe and healthy and often occupying the lowest rungs of the economic hierarchy. Yahia, as the aphorist, is more succinct in 117:

117
Spiritually speaking, a sense of independence is a form of arrogance.

He closes his prologue with this insight, or the very first unnumbered aphorism; “We must love one another or die.”

The book starts with this very personal observation:

1
Pandemics are also tests of emotional intelligence.

You have to appreciate that 1 includes the word “also”! This is Yahia’s potent up-front reminder that this pandemic exists within a continuum of human experience that asserts one must always be prepared to mobilize our multiple intelligences, balancing and counterbalancing the habits of our thinking, speech, and actions in order to maintain a space that leads to pure gratitude of the preciousness of our own life and the lives of the beings around us.

This collection, however, is not about the pandemic. Only one other of his aphorisms addresses Covid, and, indeed, it directly pleads to Covid, almost as a consciousness, to bring us to an awareness of the preciousness of spiritual and physical health:

212
Please, Covid, in the words of Blaise Pascal: Teach us the proper use of sickness.

The conditions of insights origination, observations, poetry, science, and spirituality all arise from concentration on questions around meaning and origination. Where there are no questions, there are no answers. When we search for meaning we joyfully admit our ignorance. That is the joy in this book. It is at turns earnest, humble, accessible, but sometimes difficult without the reader’s willingness to engage.

What the pandemic did here was give him space to ruminate on a variety of topics that are worthy of consideration. Here are two aphorisms presented early in the collection. The first insight is hard for me, the second was easy as I’ve learned carrying negativity towards others or myself is just too much work to continue with:

21
When we are wrongly accused, the punishment still fits the hidden sin.

22
In the same way that love is regenerative medicine, hate is a degenerative disease.

Regarding 21, I’m not sure what his insight was. What is the nature, if not the particulars of a hidden sin, is being referred to? Does it set up 22 but I don’t see it?

Each aphorism stands alone and there is not a formalized structure that divides the book by thematic elements. Nonetheless, the editing is skillful where connections and complements are made from one aphorism to the next which makes the collection more than the sum of its parts. It’s also akin to a river, at turns rapidly coursing from one insight to the next; sometimes pooling for a moment like 123 which invites us to wade in on the infinite scope of possibility:

123
Spiritually understood, everything can be used for our development and advantage.

And there are eddies in the current, like 105 to 110, that circles around from a meditation on silence, to virtues and vices, to darkness and light, and back to another mediation on silence and time.

Here, there is a valuable psychological insight that can lead to genuine healing:

113
Being frightened by our shadow and making peace with it are not mutually exclusive.

There, is an observation on ethics and freedom:

514
Ethics: Freedom within limitations.

Yahia offered us his thoughts on the eternal newness of poetry in 92 and his own view of aphorism in 189:

92
Poetry-making is a taste of eternity, and the perpetual freshness of ancient wisdom.

189
Aphorisms are a blurring of borders: wisdom literature meets psychological observation, or philosophy cloaked as poetry that is spiritually-informed.

Here he considers the poetics of living under surveillance:

17
Always act as if you’re being watched: where the surveillance state and spiritual state are in agreement.

This can resonate with those of us who subscribe to a system of ethics that places true morality at center of our being with the understanding that there are always consequences to action. I have had this very insight and don’t necessarily disagree. But it could also be interpreted more darkly, where the ethics of a surveillance state are the ethics of spirituality. This is not an unfounded fear given the concurrent ascendency of surveillance and political illiberalism that promotes increasing intolerance for out-of-favor views.

But to come to this collection with mind to agree or disagree with Yahia’s observations is not the correct way to approach it. What you will hold in your hands is not necessarily unchanging or eternal wisdom. You’re reading the notes of a fellow traveler on their journey. So, I will spend some time thinking about 21 and asking myself why it seems familiar (the notion of justice through the duality of heaven and hell?), yet I don’t share this insight?

Insights like his, or yours, or mine are dynamic. They may have value today but lose their relevance tomorrow. They may work for you, but not for me. And that is completely okay in the same way one friend is told to turn left at a stop sign, and the other to turn right to reach the same destination. Each is dependent on their starting point or whether they even wish to make that particular journey. That’s the spirit in which to approach Yahia’s collection.

This is not the book for you if you are looking for immutable dogma on humanity and their relationship to each other, to culture or to the divine. This, however, is a worthwhile collection for the curious and exploratory, for those considering a structure around which to test their own observational insights around the personal, the political, the cultural, and the spiritual together with our friend, Yahia, who shares mutual aspirations for peace, happiness, and freedom.


E.S. Michelson
November 2023

[William Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lababidi's work often delves into profound philosophical and ethical questions, exploring the human experience with keen insight. He is skilled in crafting memorable phrases rich in emotional resonance that capture the essence of an idea without losing its depth. Personal and emotional themes foster a sense of connection between the writer and the audience. "Quarantine Notes" will touch those who engage with it and make a thoughtful gift to friends and loved ones.

[Daniel Pilkington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book by the author in exchange for this review.

I am an avid reader and writer of aphorisms. I have also been collecting aphorism books for almost 20 years. I can honestly say that Yahia Lababidi is one of the contemporary masters of the form. In his latest collection, Quarantine Notes, he takes the social and political conditions surrounding the Covid pandemic as an opportunity to reflect upon the spiritual significance of physical illness and social isolation, including the spiritual state of the modern world.

With this collection (in comparison to his earlier books, ‘Signposts from Elsewhere’ and ‘Where Epics Fail’) I have noticed a slight shift in style. There is less emphasis on linguistic play and the signature ‘twist’ of the literary aphorism. These aphorisms are more intimate, more personal, and many of them feel like diary entries, meaning the title ‘Quarantine Notes’ is quite appropriate. There are still many examples of classic definitional aphorisms however. For example: ‘Jokes are distorting mirrors that reflect our absurdity’. And, as with his previous books, there is an astonishing or enlightening thought on almost every page: ‘As a profession, constructing sentences is as honorable as building homes – if we and others can live in them’.

I have also noticed that Lababidi’s writing has become more explicitly religious in recent years, with many of the aphorisms in this collection articulating the philosophical precepts and devotional attitudes of Sufism. This can lead to profound statements, such as the following aphorism, which filled me with great joy: ‘Human ideal: poet’s heart, philosopher’s mind, and mystic soul.’ Though there were some occasions when I found this religiosity a little bit grating, for some of these aphorisms are in danger of becoming too dogmatic or moralistic in tone, and with this shift in tone, they also become less interesting. For example, one aphorism reads: ‘Transgression is a choice, an assent to evil suggestion’.

I think it is important for aphorisms, and for the mystic heart, that we remain attentive, and true, to the spiritual significance of paradox. Lababidi knows this when he writes: ‘Surrender: the paradox of Free Will’, which is another one of the more brilliant aphorisms in this collection. There is a danger with some of the more ‘orthodox’ aphorisms that this sense of paradox becomes lost, and with it we experience a shift from being under the condition of Mercy to being under the condition of Judgment. Though, I am certain, that Lababidi would say that the experience of this shift is itself spiritually instructive, and he would be right to say this. My feeling, however, is that his writing is at its most elevated and insightful when he remains attuned to the mystical significance of paradox, and, in particular the importance of this for expressing a faith in both love and mercy. This comes through strongly in an aphorism such as this: ‘Detachment, paradoxically, might be the ultimate engagement with life – unconditional loving, unconcerned with results’.

Overall, another magnificent collection. If you love aphorisms you must read this book.

[Veronica Jauregui · Rating 5 out of 5]

We encounter certain books because our very essence needs them as a healing and transformative force. What a pleasure and awakening this new book written in the pandemic, 'Quarantine Notes' by Yahia Lababidi has brought to the masses, still coping from the mental and physical effects of the pandemic. In coming to this collection the weight of my mother's passing loomed and through it I'm more free because she had sayings in fact she was known for sayings her whole life. Proverbs maybe because they were much harsher than any that Lababidi could write. As he himself mentions in an aphorism " We are granted different powers to help one another. " Through them I transformed and my ideas of her love and intentions with them changed.

As I read this collection I felt very much not even in the frame of time, yes much of that pandemic time is held under the surface, this collection is inexplicably timeless and beyond time. Lababidi not only writes for the ages yet also with a certain modernity with a style that enchants and lures us in with breathtaking charm. " The prophet and the poet are the shells: Divine song it's kernel." We transform by taking his lead into the abyss of our minds, our perceptions and beliefs we hold and deep truths that come to the surface.

There is reason why Lababidi is the best aphorist alive. Each one is a treasure worth it's encounter and exploring yet there is no need for action. The words hit a switch in us which disarm us immediately. The aphorisms have changed us and made us find profoundness before we go on to the next. Infact you want to ruminate your time with them and enjoy the different flavors and colors they release like that of a fireworks show, they come quick but the lights leave a memory and nothing is the same after witnessing the grandeur and your mind engage with more and become more alive. "Mystics like lovers must consent to be annihilated." For a seeker this is the magic that confirms all the times and daily we destroy parts of ourselves that are no longer essential. The word inhalation takes us to a podium where we can go, jump and be satisfied with the destruction of the old thoughts and selves. For seekers whether we can identify or not we are always looking for that which we long for. Ladabidi brings us secrets for which we have always known. "Revelation is a reminder of what we know ." Refreshes the waters of memory and reminds us that our forget is also something that we must remember as divinity is a driving force of life itself.

There are many aphorisms which are so perfect for thoughts within our lives in society and how often it feels that the daily life we lead does not correlate with the spiritual yet these aphorisms are a bridge from which to go and come back but also connect the two worlds we each know so well, within and out. " If wisdom governs us one day it will govern governments." The sacred and the profane meet and dance with a set of words that bewilder at first then connect us to everything around us. Nothing is left unturned and placed back with meaning and depth." In art as in life, there is freedom within restrictions." Often the thought is that art is limitless but the reality is that art is made within limitations yet we never think of this upon gazing at the art. The art shows the limitless of the artist rather than the tools. The art had to be made through this invisible phase which is the magic unseen and unthought of. The aphorisms Lababidi employs are a revealing of what we thought was there but really shows is every detail revealing more than could not been anticipated at glance. In taking us further we realize aspects of ourselves we could have never imagined. Each one changes us in better ways than we could of imagined as well.

Only now are we putting together the pandemic and the whole effect that it played on us. If we have any loose threads this collection brings them through the surface and lets us see what we have become and what we have conquered. We are sometimes in a new place and still live in an old place with old mentalities, old thoughts and feelings that have not caught up with time. These aphorisms unlock the heart in such a way. That we don't know that it is happening until half way through. They place all that lost time into order and cabinets in the chambers of the heart. The heart is the messiest of places but it has an order and healing is constantly keeping order in the heart. Keeping time between the mind and heart is when we can move forward and start to live again. How can a few words go directly to disarm our minds and wrestle us into submission. A realization of what really matters deeply within in which calls to us every moment.

[Olivia Dresher · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was an honor to read Yahia Lababidi’s latest book, Quarantine Notes: Aphorisms on Morality and Mortality.

The pandemic was a difficult time for me – living in solitude, isolated from people. The Social Media posts I took in during this time expressed animosity on both sides of the issue, which became political. I was somewhere in the middle, wanting to understand. As I witnessed what was going on in others, I began to feel that Social Media does not bring out the best in people. It’s easy to post without deep thought. And what I wanted, during the pandemic, was deep thought.

Enter Yahia during these extreme times… Early in the book (aphorism #8), he wrote: “You are what you do not post, online”...then further on in the book, in aphorism #320, he wrote: “One sign of a healthy, fulfilling personal life is that it is not performed online. (The more that it is, the less it is…)” He also wrote (these aphorisms were reminders to me), “An affinity exists between extremes – they are closer to one another than to moderation”...as well as “By making ourselves available to life’s extremes – not shielding ourselves from dangerous experiences – we are granted illuminations.”

In “A few words” (written at the beginning of the book), he tells us that writing Quarantine Notes was how he kept sane and spiritually alive during the pandemic. He also revealed that he was experiencing a midlife crisis during this time. So with these two forces at work – the pandemic and a midlife crisis, framed by mortality – he turned to aphorisms as his soul’s dialogue with itself. He refers to the pandemic as an “enforced mass meditation for us all.” And he ends this short introduction with a line from W.H. Auden’s 1939 poem, “We must love one another or die.”

His writings have sometimes been compared to the wisdom found in both Rumi and Hafez, Sufi mystics writing many centuries ago. So I was pleased to know that he turned to where his own aphorisms take him, especially for guidance during the pandemic. That’s why this book was important to me. He wrote, “The punishment for avoiding suffering is superficiality; the reward for embracing it is spirituality.” And “Vastness: our only way out of this narrow-hearted mess...” (I could quote about half of his book...)

In contrast with Yahia, I’m not a spiritual person, but I long to be. In fact, I jokingly call myself a failed mystic. In aphorism #350, he writes: “Mystics, like all lovers, must consent to be annihilated.” And I realized this is one of the reasons why I fail as a mystic. As Andrew Benson Brown wrote about Yahia in the Afterward, “His vision is the mystic’s vision.”

It is curious to note that the first time I read this book, I read aphorism #71 as “Questions as guests” instead of “Questions as quests.” Then I realized that questions can be both guests and quests. And as a writer, I found good words here: “The trick is not to think of others when we write, so as not to give ourselves stage-fright or falsify feelings.”

So thank you, Yahia, for continuing to write aphorisms, your “seeds carrying orchards.” Each seed is, indeed, an orchard.

[David Dephy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Book I Highly Recommend

The collection “Quarantine Notes / Aphorisms on Morality & Mortality” by Yahia Lababidi (Formite, Burlington, VT) carves out the many aspects and even the divine aspect of life, of thought, heartbeat, premonition, and all its elements beautifully, masterly.

The book is simmering with the phrases, ideas, words as they were the rays in the dark, which deeply reflect the need to extricate oneself from the desires holding them back and let them only be driven by the insurmountable faith. An act which will lead us to salvation which we are desperately looking for.

Yahia’s sharp work answers the inner calling of the readers through their erudite responses. I think this is the one long poem, but a multipart poem, speaks volumes about the meditative and the spiritual aspect of life, of ourselves and everything around us. It is a momentarily exposition of strength, wisdom, love, hope, life itself and its various manifestations.

This very unusual and marvelous collection of guiding ideas brings out the deep and necessary feeling of seeking solace, comfort, happiness, and strength in the everyday life, and brings the aesthetic and the introspective beauty the experience of insight carries within itself.

It’s a riveting collection not only of the aphorisms, but the collection of breath depicting the unexpectedness, struggles and success weaved with constant trials and tribulations in our lives. The transparent and very simple yet profound sentences coupled with the deeply introspective and meditative words have birthed this collection of aphorisms – the powerful collection which will be savored by the readers for years to come. A book I highly recommend adding to your collection. This book works. It’s a real deal.

David Dephy – A Georgian/American award-winning poet, and the finalist of the American Book Fest 2023 in a category of Poetry: Narrative. His poem, “A Senses of Purpose,” is going to the moon in 2024 by NASA, and Brick Street Poetry.

[Kate Rafiq · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yahia Lababidi’s book ‘Quarantine Notes - Aphorisms on Morality and Mortality’ is quite simply breathtaking.

I have to confess that before reading this book I wasn’t entirely sure I knew what an aphorism was - so (obviously) I Googled it! This is the definition: a pithy observation which contains a general truth.

Well - ok! However, this definition feels somewhat beneath the works of Lababidi.

Every single one of his aphorisms has made me stop and think - almost meditate for a brief but deeply meaningful moment and whether tangible or intangible, I have been able to take something of value from all of them.

I find it astonishing that one person can produce so many insightful, genuinely thought-provoking and spiritually meaningful ‘one-liner’ observations. Lababidi most definitely has the skill of language, but perhaps more importantly it seems he is a master of the language of the soul.

You can dip in and out of this book and each time be lifted differently and in lasting ways that will make you want to read more and more. Each aphorism feels like a little ‘thought gift’, perfectly wrapped with a silk ribbon, which when untied, reveals a gift far greater in size than its initial appearance on the page.

I really cannot recommend Lababidi’s work highly enough and I think you too will wonder how it is that one person can be so deeply insightful - what a gift!

[Rebecca Romani · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of Aphorisms is, in a way, the essence of Yahia Lababidi- insightful, kind, brevity where brevity is warranted, and rich with well-turned phrases and beautiful imagery. The aphorisms run through love, friendship, nature's beauty -the incandescent wonder of life. Deeply meditative, these aphorisms are, perhaps, the quiet relief we need in lives made cacophonous by fear of the pandemic, uncouth voices in the social media agora, and the worry that life may be forever changed by the pandemic years.

Lababidi's writing is reassuring yet clarion clear that our lives have meaning and that we, too, have purpose, and he calls us to our better selves with images of lustrous nature, and love, and the joys of lives that only we can live when fully aware that within our ability to adapt and change lies our immortality.

It is clear from Lababidi’s writing and structure that he is heir to the great Sufi masters and yet also of this time with his ability to transmit images and feelings to current readers.

And these aphorisms are also hopeful with a deeply held belief that after a trying Winter comes an exuberant Spring.

It is a beautiful book, one to be read outloud to a dear friend or enjoyed with a lovely tea.

[Farooq Karimi Zadeh · Rating 5 out of 5]

After realizing that I am kinda a poet, or more precisely a programmer poet, Lababidi gifted me an electronic version of his book. I hadn't got any prior poetry or aphorism reading experience except from some Persian poets from the Islamic Golden age. These poets include Ferdowsi, Hafez and Sadi. And their poems are superb. During elementary school, I had written a poem about story of a cockroach. And later, as my English and Arabic linguistic skills were growing, I wrote some English and Arabic poems. And yet, my profession was not, poetry and still it's the case.

When Lababidi gifted me his book, I first had to look up the word "Aphorism" in dictionary. And I found I already know someone who says such these and is a programmer. This book is indeed an interesting read for me. Even though I don't understand many sentences as I lack many needed English words in my vocabulary. Yet, the sentences, or so called aphorisms which I understand, are very deep, beautiful and interesting.

If like me, you enjoy these kind of stuff, I suggest reading this book. If not, don't get a book which you won't read and save the trees!

[Sean Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed my time with this book, a collection of poetry in the form of aphorisms - compact sayings that condense broader truths into pearls of wisdom. It's a brisk read and highly quotable. I wasn't moved by every single aphorism in this book, but the ones that landed for me really made this book worth my time. The subject matter and tone range from playful to profound, with a good balance between deep, spiritual content and more secular observations. It would be a good fit for readers who enjoy micropoetry or inspirational / spiritual writing, and it's the kind of book that lends itself to re-reading. I think everyone will find at least one aphorism in this book that will resonate with them.

I received an advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Belinda Mora · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a style reminiscent of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Yahia Lababidi’s work is a collection of deep meditations collected during a time of great upheaval. The recent pandemic was for most of us a time to withdraw from the day to day routine and reflect upon our life and mortality. Quarantine Notes does this from someone who was already successfully penning aphorisms. This book gives us insight into the mind of a modern mystic. There is a light in each aphorism which the author transmits to the reader. Each aphorism invites you to pause and reflect, to savor each aphorism in a meditation akin to praying.

[Md. Daniel-Ibrahim Shikder-Trepanier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yahia can pack more insight and meaning in a few words than others do in a paragraph. Quaranteen Notes is a timeless piece that one savours through multiple sittings. I find myself coming back for more. Yahia has inspired me to re-explore a style of poetry that broadens my thinking and expands my heart.

[Aisha Duze · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given an e-copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

This is easily in my top 3 reads for 2023. I found the delivery of this brilliant collection of aphorisms to be truthful yet kind, a combination that doesn't happen often. I also loved being able to sometimes excitedly agree with Yahia's interpretations of our world today because I share the exact same perspective, or at other times ponder on entirely new realizations to either welcome them or do battle with them. I have since read it twice and will certainly be adding it to my collection of 'life manuals' which is a collection of books and writings that I turn to when I wish make sense of life's unending twists and turns.