N > N's Quotes

“And it is clear that in the colonial countries the peasants alone are revolutionary, for they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The starving peasant, outside the class system is the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays. For him there is no compromise, no possible coming to terms; colonization and decolonization is simply a question of relative strength.”
― Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

“Get this into your head: if violence were only a thing of the future, if exploitation and oppression never existed on earth, perhaps displays of nonviolence might relieve the conflict. But if the entire regime, even your nonviolent thoughts, is governed by a thousand-year old oppression, your passiveness serves no other purpose but to put you on the side of the oppressors.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Wretched of the Earth

“ولعل ما تخشاه ليس بكائن , ولعل ما ترجوه سوف يكون
ولعل ما هونت ليس بهين , ولعل ما شدّدت سوف يهون”
― أبو العتاهية

“أصبح القبر مضجعي ومحلي وموضعي

صرعتني الحتوف في الترب يا ذل مصرعي

أين إخواني الذين إليهم تطلعي

مت وحدي فلم يمت واحد منهم معي”
― أبو العتاهية

“كلما تعلقت بـ شخص تعلقاً أذاقكْ الله مرّ التعلق،
لـ تعلم أن الله يغار على قلب تعلق بغيره،
فيصدٌك عن ذاك لـ يرٌدك إليه .”
― محمد بن إدريس الشافعي

“إذا المرء لا يرعاك إلا تكلفاً.. فدعه ولا تُكثِر عليه التأسفا
ففي الناس أبدال وفي الترك راحةٌ.. وفي القلب صبرٌ للحبيب ولو جفا
فما كل من تهواه يهواكَ قلبُه.. ولا كل من صافيته لك قد صفا
إذا لم يكن صفو الوداد طبيعةً.. فلا خيرَ في ودٍ يجئُ تكلٌفا
ولا خيرَ في خِلٍ يخون خليله.. ويلقاهُ من بعدِ المودة بالجفا
ويُنكِرُ عيشاً قد تقادم عهدهُ.. ويُظهِرُ سراً كان بالأمس قد خفا
سلامٌ على الدنيا إذا لم يكن بها.. صديقٌ صدوقٌ صادقُ الوعدِ مُنصِفا”
― محمد بن إدريس الشافعي

“Arabs, for example, are thought of as camel-riding, terroristic, hook-nosed, venal lechers whose undeserved wealth is an affront to real civilization. Always there lurks the assumption that although the Western consumer belongs to a numerical minority, he is entitled either to own or to expend (or both) the majority of the world resources. Why? Because he, unlike the Oriental, is a true human being.”
― Edward W. Said, Orientalism

“Always there lurks the assumption that although the Western consumer belongs to a numerical minority, he is entitled either to own or to expend (or both) the majority of the world resources. Why? Because he, unlike the Oriental, is a true human being. No better instance exists today of what Anwar Abdel Malek calls “the hegemonism of possessing minorities” and anthropocentrism allied with Europocentrism: a white middle-class Westerner believes it his human prerogative not only to manage the nonwhite world but also to own it, just because by definition “it” is not quite as human as “we” are. There is no purer example than this of dehumanized thought.”
― Edward W. Said, Orientalism