Najdat AlSoufi > Najdat's Quotes

“The More Loving One

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.”
― W.H. Auden, Collected Shorter Poems, 1927-1957

“We would rather be ruined than changed
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.”
― W H Auden, The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue

“As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
'Love has no ending.

'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.”
― W.H. Auden, As I Walked Out One Evening: Songs, Ballads, Lullabies, Limericks & Other Light Verse

“What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish.”
― W. H. Auden, The Dyer's Hand and Other Essays

“A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.”
― W.H. Auden

“There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.”
― W.H. Auden

“All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation. ”
― W. H. Auden

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
― Jim Rohn

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”
― Mark Twain

“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince and Other Stories

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“In Africa we having a saying, 'If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.' ...Before I go back home, I want you to consider us, Katie. Ponder what it would be like if we went together. Not alone and fast but together and far.”
― Robin Jones Gunn, Coming Attractions

“Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”
― Thomas Keneally, Schindler’s List

“How to stop time: kiss.
How to travel in time: read.
How to escape time: music.
How to feel time: write.
How to release time: breathe.”
― Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive

“Maybe love is just about finding the person you can be your weird self with.”
― Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive

“If you are the type of person who thinks too much about stuff then there is nothing lonelier in the world than being surrounded by a load of people on a different wavelength.”
― Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive

“Three in the morning is never the time to try and sort out your life.”
― Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive

“Life is hard. It may be beautiful and wonderful but it is also hard.”
― Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive

“What doesn't kill you very often makes you weaker. What doesn't kill you can leave you limping for the rest of your days. What doesn't kill you can make you scared to leave your house, or even your bedroom, and have you trembling, or mumbling incoherently, or leaning with your head on a window pane, wishing you could return to the time before the thing that didn't kill you.”
― Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive

“Do not watch TV aimlessly. Do not go on social media aimlessly. Always be aware of what you are doing, and why you are doing it. Don’t value TV less. Value it more. Then you will watch it less. Unchecked distractions will lead you to distraction.”
― Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive

“I wanted to be dead. No. That's not quite right. I didn't want to be dead, I just didn't want to be alive.”
― Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive

“The weird thing about depression is that, even though you might have more suicidal thoughts, the fear of death remains the same. The only difference is that the pain of life has rapidly increased. So when you hear about someone killing themselves it’s important to know that death wasn’t any less scary for them. It wasn’t a ‘choice’ in the moral sense. To be moralistic about it is to misunderstand.”
― Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive

“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting”
― Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

“لبّيكَ لبّيكَ يا سرّي و نجوائـــي لبّيك لبّيك يا قصدي و معنائـي
أدعوك بلْ أنت تدعوني إليك فهـلْ ناديتُ إيّاك أم ناجيتَ إيّائـــي
يا عين عين وجودي يا مدى هممي يا منطقي و عباراتي و إيمائـي
يا كلّ كلّي يا سمعي و يا بصري يا جملتي و تباعيضي و أجزائي
يا كلّ كـلّي و كلّ الكـلّ ملتبس و كل كـلّك ملبوس بمعنائــي
يا من به عُلقَتْ روحي فقد تلفت وجدا فصرتَ رهينا تحت أهوائي
أبكي على شجني من فرقتي وطني طوعاً و يسعدني بالنوح أعدائـي
أدنو فيبعدني خوف فيقلقنــي شوق تمكّن في مكنون أحشائـي
فكيف أصنع في حبّ كَلِفْتُ به مولاي قد ملّ من سقمي أطبّائـي
قالوا تداوَ به منه فقلت لهـم يا قوم هل يتداوى الداء بالدائـي
حبّي لمولاي أضناني و أسقمني فكيف أشكو إلى مولاي مولائـي
اّني لأرمقه و القلب يعرفـه فما يترجم عنه غير ايمائـــي
يا ويحَ روحي من روحي فوا أسفي عليَّ منّي فإنّي اصل بلوائـــي
كانّني غَرق تبدو أناملــه تَغوثُّاً و هو في بحر من المـاء
وليس يَعْلَم ما لاقيت من احدٍ إلا الذي حلَّ منّي في سويدائـي
ذاك العليم بما لاقيت من دنفٍ و في مشيئِتِه موتي و إحيائــي
يا غاية السؤل و المأمول يا سكني يا عيش روحي يا ديني و دنيائي
قُلْ لي فَدَيْتُكَ يا سمعي و يا بصري لِمْ ذا اللجاجة في بُعدي و إقصائي
إِن كنتَ بالغيب عن عينيَّ مُحْتَجِباً فالقلب يرعاك في الأبعاد و النائي”
― الحلاج

“ما لي وللناس كم يلحونني سفها ... ديني لنفسي ودين الناس للنـــاس”
― الحلاج, الحلاج: الأعمال الكاملة

“أصابك عشق أم رميت بأسهم - فما هذه إلا سجيّة مغرمِ
ألا فاسقني كاسات خمر وغني لي - بذكري سليمى والكمان ونغمي
فدع عنك ذكر العامرية إنني ـ أغار عليها من فمي المتكلمِ
أغار عليها من أبيها وأمها ـ إذا حدثاها بالكلام المغمغمِ
أغار عليها من ثيابها ـ إذا لبستها فوق جسم منعّم
فواللّه لولا اللّه فواللّه ـ لولا اللّه والخوف والحياء
لقبلتها، للثمتها، لعضتها - لضممتها بين العقيق وزمزم
وان حرم الله في شرعه الزنا - فما حرّم التقبيلُ يوماً على الفم
وإن حرمت يوما على دين محمدٍ - فخذها على دين المسيح ابن مريم

أَعُدُّ اللَيالي لَيلَةً بَعدَ لَيلَةٍ - وَقَد عِشتُ دَهراً لا أَعُدُّ اللَيالِيا
أُصلّي فما أدري إذا ما ذكرتُها - أثنتّينِ صلّيتُ العشاء أَم ثمانيا

عشقتك يا ليلى وأنت صغيرة - وأنا ابن سبع ما بلغت الثمانيا
يقولون ليلى في العراق مريضة - ألا ليتني كنت الطبيب المداويا
و قالوا عنك سوداء حبشية - ولولا سواد المسك ما انباع غاليا

بلغوها إذا أتيتم حماها - أنني مت في الغرام فداها
واذكروني لها بكل جميل - فعساها تحن علي عساها
واصحبوها لتربتي فعظامي - تشتهي أن تدوسها قدماها
إن روحى من الضريح تناجيها - وعيني تسير إثر خطاها
لم يشقني يوم القيامة لولا - أملي أنني هناك أراها

تسائلني حلوة المبسم - متى أنت فبّلتني في فمي؟
سلي شفتيك بما حسّتاه - من شفتي شاعر مغرم
ألم تغمضي عندها ناظريك؟ - وبالرّاحتين ألم تحتمي؟
فإن شئت أرجعتها ثانيا - مضاعفة للفم المنعم
فقالت و غضذت بأهدابها - إذا كان حقا فلا تحجم
سأغمض عينيّ كي لا أراك - وما في صنيعك من مأثم
كأنّك في الحلم قبّلتني - فقلت و أفديك أن تحلمي”
― تراث

“ما لي سِوى الروح ، خُذْهَا !
والروح جُهْدُ المُقِلِّ”
― الحلاج

“I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby