Reem Maalem > Reem's Quotes

“في ناس دايما واحشاني معرفش مين هما”
― وليد طاهر, حبة هوا...

“هو احنا مش من امبارح
بنقول نفسنا نبقى بكره؟
ادينا بقينا بكره وبعد بكره
ولسه احنا برضه..امبارح”
― وليد طاهر, حبة هوا...

“جوايا حد زعلان
من اني.... زعلان
من حد جوايا”
― وليد طاهر, حبة هوا...

“امبارح و أنا مروح .. ما دخلتش في شارعنا ..
و دخلت في شارع تاني .. تهت .. بس شفت ..
شجر تاني .. باب تاني .. كلب تاني ..
بكره و أنا مروح .. مش هروح .. و هأسيب نفسي
أتوه تاني !”
― وليد طاهر, حبة هوا...

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
― William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
― Rumi

“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”
― Rumi

“Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.”
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

“What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.”
― Rumi

“I closed my mouth and spoke to you in a hundred silent ways.”
― Rumi

“Remember. The way you make love is the way God will be with you.”
― Rumi Jalalud-Din

“The angel is free because of his knowledge, the beast because of his ignorance. Between the two remains the son of man to struggle.”
― Rumi

“When the light returns to its source, it takes nothing of what it has illuminated.”
― Rumi

“What does your sorrow do while you sleep? -It’s awake and waiting. And when it loses patience, it wakes me up.”
― Ivo Andric

“One shouldn't be afraid of the humans. Well, I am not afraid of the humans, but of what is inhuman in them.”
― Ivo Andric

“Rise and demand; you are a burning flame.
You are sure to conquer there where the final horizon
Becomes a drop of blood, a drop of life,
Where you will carry the universe on your shoulders,
Where the universe will bear your hope.”
― Miguel Angel Asturias

“We are all born mad. Some remain so.”
― Samuel Beckett

“You're on Earth. There's no cure for that.”
― Samuel Beckett

“بُلينا بقوم يظنون أن الله لم يهد سواهم.”
― ابن سينا

“الوهم نصف الداء ، و الاطمئنان نصف الدواء ، و الصبر أول خطوات الشفاء .”
― ابن سينا

“إن غلبة اللغة بغلبة أهلها, وأن منزلتها بين اللغات صورة لمنزلة دولتها بين الأمم”
― ابن خلدون

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
― Rumi

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”
― Aristotle

“I want you to tell me about every person you’ve ever been in love with.
Tell me why you loved them,
then tell me why they loved you.

Tell me about a day in your life you didn’t think you’d live through.
Tell me what the word home means to you
and tell me in a way that I’ll know your mother’s name
just by the way you describe your bedroom
when you were eight.

See, I want to know the first time you felt the weight of hate,
and if that day still trembles beneath your bones.

Do you prefer to play in puddles of rain
or bounce in the bellies of snow?
And if you were to build a snowman,
would you rip two branches from a tree to build your snowman arms
or would leave your snowman armless
for the sake of being harmless to the tree?
And if you would,
would you notice how that tree weeps for you
because your snowman has no arms to hug you
every time you kiss him on the cheek?

Do you kiss your friends on the cheek?
Do you sleep beside them when they’re sad
even if it makes your lover mad?
Do you think that anger is a sincere emotion
or just the timid motion of a fragile heart trying to beat away its pain?

See, I wanna know what you think of your first name,
and if you often lie awake at night and imagine your mother’s joy
when she spoke it for the very first time.

I want you to tell me all the ways you’ve been unkind.
Tell me all the ways you’ve been cruel.
Tell me, knowing I often picture Gandhi at ten years old
beating up little boys at school.

If you were walking by a chemical plant
where smokestacks were filling the sky with dark black clouds
would you holler “Poison! Poison! Poison!” really loud
or would you whisper
“That cloud looks like a fish,
and that cloud looks like a fairy!”

Do you believe that Mary was really a virgin?
Do you believe that Moses really parted the sea?
And if you don’t believe in miracles, tell me —
how would you explain the miracle of my life to me?

See, I wanna know if you believe in any god
or if you believe in many gods
or better yet
what gods believe in you.
And for all the times that you’ve knelt before the temple of yourself,
have the prayers you asked come true?
And if they didn’t, did you feel denied?
And if you felt denied,
denied by who?

I wanna know what you see when you look in the mirror
on a day you’re feeling good.
I wanna know what you see when you look in the mirror
on a day you’re feeling bad.
I wanna know the first person who taught you your beauty
could ever be reflected on a lousy piece of glass.

If you ever reach enlightenment
will you remember how to laugh?

Have you ever been a song?
Would you think less of me
if I told you I’ve lived my entire life a little off-key?
And I’m not nearly as smart as my poetry
I just plagiarize the thoughts of the people around me
who have learned the wisdom of silence.

Do you believe that concrete perpetuates violence?
And if you do —
I want you to tell me of a meadow
where my skateboard will soar.

See, I wanna know more than what you do for a living.
I wanna know how much of your life you spend just giving,
and if you love yourself enough to also receive sometimes.
I wanna know if you bleed sometimes
from other people’s wounds,
and if you dream sometimes
that this life is just a balloon —
that if you wanted to, you could pop,
but you never would
‘cause you’d never want it to stop.

If a tree fell in the forest
and you were the only one there to hear —
if its fall to the ground didn’t make a sound,
would you panic in fear that you didn’t exist,
or would you bask in the bliss of your nothingness?

And lastly, let me ask you this:

If you and I went for a walk
and the entire walk, we didn’t talk —
do you think eventually, we’d… kiss?

No, wait.
That’s asking too much —
after all,
this is only our first date.”
― Andrea Gibson

“and I wonder if Beethoven held his breath
the first time his fingers touched the keys
the same way a soldier holds his breath
the first time his finger clicks the trigger.
We all have different reasons for forgetting to breathe.”
― Andrea Gibson

“I’m never gonna wait
that extra twenty minutes
to text you back,
and I’m never gonna play
hard to get
when I know your life
has been hard enough already.
When we all know everyone’s life
has been hard enough already
it’s hard to watch
the game we make of love,
like everyone’s playing checkers
with their scars,
saying checkmate
whenever they get out
without a broken heart.
Just to be clear
I don’t want to get out
without a broken heart.
I intend to leave this life
so shattered
there’s gonna have to be
a thousand separate heavens
for all of my flying parts.”
― Andrea Gibson