Shamma > Shamma's Quotes

“If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, Their Oil would become Tears.”
― Mahmoud Darwish

“Where can I free myself of the homeland in my body?”
― Mahmoud Darwish, Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems

“This moment will just be another story someday.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“I heard you in the other room asking your mother, 'Mama, am I a Palestinian?' When she answered 'Yes' a heavy silence fell on the whole house. It was as if something hanging over our heads had fallen, its noise exploding, then - silence. Afterwards...I heard you crying. I could not move. There was something bigger than my awareness being born in the other room through your bewildered sobbing. It was as if a blessed scalpel was cutting up your chest and putting there the heart that belongs to you...I was unable to move to see what was happening in the other room. I knew, however, that a distant homeland was being born again: hills, olive groves, dead people, torn banners and folded ones, all cutting their way into a future of flesh and blood and being born in the heart of another child...Do you believe that man grows? No, he is born suddenly - a word, a moment, penetrates his heart to a new throb. One scene can hurl him down from the ceiling of childhood onto the ruggedness of the road.”
― Ghassan Kanafani

“As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.”
― Toni Morrison

“Life defined only as the opposite of death is not life.”
― Mahmoud Darwish, Almond Blossoms and Beyond

“We come from the land, give our love and labor to her, and she nurtures us in return. When we die, we return to the land. In a way, she owns us. Palestine owns us and we belong to her”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“Toughness found fertile soil in the hearts of Palestinians, and the grains of resistance embedded themselves in their skin. Endurance evolved as a hallmark of refugee society. But the price they paid was the subduing of tender vulnerability. They learned to celebrate martyrdom. Only martyrdom offered freedom. Only in death were they at last invulnerable to Israel. Martyrdom became the ultimate defiance of Israeli occupation. "Never let them know they hurt you" was their creed”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“We were
existing somewhere between life and death, with neither accepting us
fully.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“Stories matter. We are composed of our stories. The human heart is made of the words we put in it. If someone ever says mean things to you, don’t let those words go into your heart, and be careful not to put mean words in other people’s hearts.”
― Susan Abulhawa, The Blue Between Sky and Water

“Nothing is very constant in Beirut. Certainly not dreams. But despair isn’t constant either. Beirut is a city to be loved and hated a thousand times a day. Every day. It is exhausting, but it is also beautiful.”
― Nasri Atallah

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
― William Butler Yeats

“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”
― Michel Legrand

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
― Maya Angelou

“أتعرفين ما هو الوطن يا صفية ؟ الوطن هو ألا يحدث ذلك كله.”
― غسان كنفاني, عائد إلى حيفا

“ليــس المهـم أن يمـوت الإنســان، قبــل أن يحقــق فكــرته النبيلــة... بــل المهــم أن يجــد لنفســه فكـــرة نبيلــة قبــل أن يمــوت”
― غسان كنفاني

“تسقُطُ الأجسادُ... لا الفِكرة”
― غسان كنفاني

“لقد أخطأنا حين اعتبرنا أن الوطن هو الماضي
فقط .. أما خالد فالوطن عنده هو المستقبل”
― غسان كنفاني, عائد إلى حيفا

“!إنني أعرفها، "حيفا" ولكنها تنكرني”
― غسان كنفاني, عائد إلى حيفا

“Israeli occupation exposes us very young to the extremes of our emotions, until we cannot feel except in the extreme.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“An instant can crush a brain and change the course of life, the course of history.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“The roots of our grief coil so deeply into loss that death has come
to live with us like a family member who makes you happy by avoiding
you, but who is still one of the family. Our anger is a rage that
Westerners cannot understand. Our sadness can make the stones
weep. And the way we love is no exception”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“Amal, I believe that most Americans do not love as we do. It is not for any inherent deficiency or superiority in them. They live in the safe, shallow parts that rarely push human emotions into the depths where we dwell. I see your confusion. Consider fear. For us, fear comes where terror comes to others because we are anesthetized to the guns constantly pointed at us. And the terror we have known is something few Westerners ever will. Israeli occupation exposes us very young to the extremes of our own emotions, until we cannot feel except in the extreme.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“Just like our ancestors, we too will fall out of living memory and be forgotten.
It will take a future genealogist to find us again.
Make it a good find.”
― Stephen Robert Kuta

“We are the accumulation of the dreams of generations”
― Stephen Robert Kuta

“Unable to record their stories, they told tales of bravery and battles, around blazing fires, and sang songs about bountiful harvests and village heroes as they went about their daily work. These stories and songs were passed down from generation to generation, preserving their history, keeping memories alive.”
― Arlene Stafford-Wilson, Lanark County Calling: All Roads Lead Home

“Knowing your generational story firms the ground upon which you stand. It makes your life, your struggles and triumphs, bigger than your lone existence. It connects you to a grand plotline.”
― Cicely Tyson, Just as I Am

“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”
― Brene Brown

“Nostalgia is also a dangerous form of comparison. Think about how often we compare our lives to a memory that nostalgia has so completely edited that it never really existed.”
― Brene Brown

“Those who feel lovable, who love, and who experience belonging simply believe they are worthy of love and belonging. I often say that Wholeheartedness is like the North Star: We never really arrive, but we certainly know if we're headed in the right direction.”
― Brene Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead