dostoelover > dostoelover's Quotes

“You're beautiful, but you're empty...One couldn't die for you. Of course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together, since she's the one I've watered. Since she's the one I put under glass, since she's the one I sheltered behind the screen. Since she's the one for whom I killed the caterpillars (except the two or three butterflies). Since she's the one I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she's my rose.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“I am looking for friends. What does that mean -- tame?"

"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties."

"To establish ties?"

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world....”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“Do you know I don't know how one can walk by a tree and not be happy at the sight of it? How can one talk to a man and not be happy in loving him! Oh, it's only that I'm not able to express it...And what beautiful things there are at every step, that even the most hopeless man must feel to be beautiful! Look at a child! Look at God's sunrise! Look at the grass, how it grows! Look at the eyes that gaze at you and love you!”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

“The essential, as usual, is imponderable. The essential, so it seems, was but a smile. But often the essential is indeed a smile. One is paid by a smile, repaid by a smile, quickened by a smile.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Letter to a Hostage

“Order for order's sake castrates man of his essential power, which is to transform both the world and himself. Life creates order, but order does not create life.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Letter to a Hostage

“ما اجهل الناس الذين يتوهّمون ان المحبة تتولد بالمعاشرة الطويلة والمرافقة المستمرة.
ان المحبة الحقيقية هي ابنة التفاهم الروحي وان لم يتم هذا التفاهم الروحي بلحظة واحدة لا يتم بعام ولا بجيل كامل”
― جبران خليل جبران, The Broken Wings

“أتطلب مني الصبر والتجلد وفي عينيك معنى اليأس والقنوط؟ أيعطي الفقير الجائع خبزه إلى الجائع الفقير
هل يتعزى كسير القلب بالقلب الكسير”
― جبران خليل جبران, The Broken Wings

“أشفق يا رب وشدد جميع الأجنحة المتكسرة”
― جبران خليل جبران, The Broken Wings

“ستنتهي الحرب ويتصافح القادة وتبقى تلك العجوز، تنتظر ولدها الشهيد وتلك الفتاة، تنتظر زوجها الحبيب وأولئك الأطفال، ينتظرون والدهم البطل لا أعلم من باع الوطن! ولكنني رأيتُ من دفع الثمن”
― محمود درويش

“I am a dreamer. I know so little of real life that I just can’t help re-living such moments as these in my dreams, for such moments are something I have very rarely experienced. I am going to dream about you the whole night, the whole week, the whole year.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, White Nights

“May your sky always be clear, may your dear smile always be bright and happy, and may you be for ever blessed for that moment of bliss and happiness which you gave to another lonely and grateful heart. Isn't such a moment sufficient for the whole of one's life?”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, White Nights

“يسرقون رغيفك .. ثم يعطونك منه كِسرة .. ثم يأمرونك أن تشكرهم على كرمهم .. يالوقاحتهم !!”
― غسان كنفاني

“You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone. This is why art is important. Art would not be important if life were not important, and life is important.”
― James Baldwin, Conversations with James Baldwin (Literary Conversations Series)

“Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“Do you suppose, gentlemen, that our children as they grow up and begin to reason can avoid such questions? No, they cannot, and we will not impose on them an impossible restriction. The sight of an unworthy father involuntarily suggests tormenting questions to a young creature, especially when he compares him with the excellent fathers of his companions. The conventional answer to this question is: 'He begot you, and you are his flesh and blood, and therefore you are bound to love him.' The youth involuntarily reflects: 'But did he love me when he begot me?' he asks, wondering more and more. 'Was it for my sake he begot me? He did not know me, not even my sex, at that moment, at the moment of passion, perhaps, inflamed by wine, and he has only transmitted to me a propensity to drunkenness- that's all he's done for me.... Why am I bound to love him simply for begetting me when he has cared nothing for me all my life after?
Oh, perhaps those questions strike you as coarse and cruel, but do not expect an impossible restraint from a young mind. 'Drive nature out of the door and it will fly in at the window'.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“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

“Grown-up people do not know that a child can give exceedingly good advice even in the most difficult case.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

“I am a fool with a heart but no brains, and you are a fool with brains but no heart; and we’re both unhappy, and we both suffer.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

“You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone. This is why art is important.”
― James Baldwin, Conversations with James Baldwin (Literary Conversations Series)

“إن أكبر جريمه يمكن لأي أنسان أن يرتكبها ...كائنا من كان ..هي أن يعتقد ولو للحظه أن ضعف الآخريين و اخطاءهم هي التي تشكل حقه في الوجود على حسابهم ...وهي التي تبرر له أخطاءه و جرائمه”
― غسان كنفاني, عائد إلى حيفا

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

“إن الإنسان في نهاية الأمر قضية”
― غسان كنفاني, عائد إلى حيفا

“-" زوجتي تسأل إن كان جبننا يعطيك الحق في أن تكون هكذا، وهي، كما ترى، تعترف ببراءة بأننا كنا جبناء، ومن هنا فأنت على حق، ولكن ذلك لا يبرر لك شيئا، إن خطأ زائد خطأ لا يساويان صحا، ولو كان الأمر كذلك لكان ما حدث لايفرات ولميريام في أوشفيتز صوابا، ولكن متى تكفون عن اعتبار ضعف الآخرين وأخطائهم مجيرة لحساب ميزاتكم ؟ لقد اهترأت هذه الأقوال العتيقة، هذه المعادلات الحسابية المترعة بالأخاديع... مرة تقولون أن أخطاءنا تبرر أخطاءكم، ومرة تقولون أن الظلم لا يصحح بظلم آخر... تستخدمون المنطق الأول لتبرير وجودكم هنا، وتستخدمون المنطق الثاني لتتجنبوا العقاب الذي تستحقونه، ويخيل إلي أنكم تتمتعون الى أقصى حد بهذه اللعبه الطريفة، وها أنت تحاول مرة جديده أن تجعل من ضعفنا حصان الطراد الذي تعتلي صهوته... لا، أنا لا أتحدث إليك مفترضا إنك عربي، والآن أنا أكثر من يعرف أن الإنسان هو قضية، وليس لحما ودما يتوارثه جيل وراء جيل مثلما يتبادل البائع والزبون معلبات اللحم المقدد، إنما أتحدث إاليك مفترضا أنك في نهاية الأمر إنسان. يهودي. أو فلتكن ما تشاء. ولكن عليك أن تدرك الأشياء كما ينبغي... وأنا أعرف أنك ذات يوم ستدرك هذه الأشياء، وتدرك أن أكبر جريمة يمكن لأي إنسان أن يرتكبها، كائنا من كان، هي أن يعتقد ولو للحظة أن ضعف الآخرين وأخطاءهم هي التي تشكل حقه في الوجود على حسابهم، وهي التي تبرر له أخطاءه وجرائمه...

-" وأنت، أتعتقد أننا سنظل نخطئ ؟ وإن كففنا ذات يوم عن الخطأ، فما الذي يتبقى لديك ؟".”
― غسان كنفاني, عائد إلى حيفا

“Read the best writers from all different periods; keep your reading of contemporaries in proportion - you do not want a steady diet of contemporary literature. You already belong to your time.”
― Lydia Davis, Essays One