Sereen > Sereen's Quotes

“I want to take my rightful share of life by force, I want to give lavishly, I want love to flow from my heart, to ripen and bear fruit. There are many horizons that must be visited, fruit that must be plucked, books read, and white pages in the scrolls of life to be inscribed with vivid sentences in a bold hand.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“هذه السخرية كانت درعا من نوع ما، إزاء خطر قررت أن أفضل اسلوب لمواجهته هو التصغير من شأنه”
― رضوى عاشور, أثقل من رضوى: مقاطع من سيرة ذاتية

“Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.”
― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.”
― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

“You are being manipulated when someone reduces, by any means, your ability to be your own judge of what you do.”
― Manuel J. Smith, When I Say No, I Feel Guilty: How to Cope, Using the Skills of Systematic Assertive Therapy

“وسعادتي بفهم الناس أكبر من سعادتي بالحكم عليهم”
― Stefan Zweig, Vingt-quatre heures de la vie d'une femme

“Forgiveness is not a feeling; it is a commitment.”
― Gary Chapman, The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate

“I exist.’ In thousands of agonies — I exist. I’m tormented on the rack — but I exist! Though I sit alone in a pillar — I exist! I see the sun, and if I don’t see the sun, I know it’s there. And there’s a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“When she does not find love, she may find poetry. Because she does not act, she observes, she feels, she records; a color, a smile awakens profound echoes within her; her destiny is outside her, scattered in cities already built, on the faces of men already marked by life, she makes contact, she relishes with passion and yet in a manner more detached, more free, than that of a young man. Being poorly integrated in the universe of humanity and hardly able to adapt herself therein, she, like the child, is able to see it objectively; instead of being interested solely in her grasp on things, she looks for their significance; she catches their special outlines, their unexpected metamorphoses. She rarely feels a bold creativeness, and usually she lacks the technique of self-expression; but in her conversation, her letters, her literary essays, her sketches, she manifests an original sensitivity. The young girl throws herself into things with ardor, because she is not yet deprived of her transcendence; and the fact that she accomplishes nothing, that she is nothing, will make her impulses only the more passionate. Empty and unlimited, she seeks from within her nothingness to attain All.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

“The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our project”
― Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

“In other words, the default state is to trust, and what the amygdala does is learn vigilance and distrust.”
― Robert M. Sapolsky, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

“I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska

“I lied and said I was busy.
I was busy;
but not in a way most people understand.

I was busy taking deeper breaths.
I was busy silencing irrational thoughts.
I was busy calming a racing heart.
I was busy telling myself I am okay.

Sometimes, this is my busy -
and I will not apologize for it.”
― Brittin Oakman

“The convenient omission of household workers’ problems from the programs of “middle-class” feminists past and present has often turned out to be a veiled justification—at least on the part of the affluent women—of their own exploitative treatment of their maids.”
― Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race & Class

“Kat: You can't just buy me a guitar every time you mess up, you know.

Pat: I know, but there's still drums, and a bass, and maybe even someday a tambourine.”
― David Levithan, Ten Things I Hate about You

“Pain is unavoidable, but suffering is optional.”
― Isabel Allende, A Long Petal of the Sea

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

“The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

“I will not be "famous," "great." I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one's self: to let it find its dimensions, not be impeded.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Writer's Diary

“Arrange whatever pieces come your way.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Writer's Diary

“Thus I hope to have kept the sound of the sea and the birds, dawn and garden subconsciously present, doing their work under ground.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Writer's Diary: The Virginia Woolf Library Authorized Edition

“I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely. No one knows me or loves me completely. I have only myself”
― Simone de Beauvoir

“She was ready to deny the existence of space and time rather than admit that love might not be eternal.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins

“All oppression creates a state of war. And this is no exception.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.”
― Frank Herbert

“i don't pay attention to the
world ending.
it has ended for me
many times
and began again in the morning.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, Salt

“Every corner of my world is a safe place. Even in the dark of night when I sleep, I am safe. I know tomorrow will take care of itself. My dreams are dreams of joy. I awaken feeling safe and secure. I love waking up. If I awaken with a dream, I ask it to tell me about itself.”
― Louise L. Hay, Meditations to Heal Your Life

“I feel totally safe everywhere in this Universe.”
― Louise L. Hay, Meditations to Heal Your Life

“If someone is not treating you with love and respect, it is a gift if they walk away from you. If that person doesn't walk away, you will surely endure many years of suffering with him or her. Walking away may hurt for a while, but your heart will eventually heal. Then you can choose what you really want. You will find that you don't need to trust others as much as you need to trust yourself to make the right choices.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

“You become what you think about most.. But you also attract what you think about most. (John Assaraf) ”
― Rhonda Byrne, The Secret