Abdullah A. > Abdullah A.'s Quotes

“We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.”
― John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

“One of the strange things about adulthood is that you are your current self, but you are also all the selves you used to be, the ones you grew out of but can't ever quite get rid of.”
― John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
― Marcus Aurelius

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. ”
― Epictetus

“The alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.

The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the story.

He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

'Why do you weep?' the goddesses asked.

'I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied.

'Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus,' they said, 'for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand.'

'But... was Narcissus beautiful?' the lake asked.

'Who better than you to know that?' the goddesses asked in wonder. 'After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!'

The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:

'I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.'

'What a lovely story,' the alchemist thought.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“You are a little soul carrying around a corpse”
― Epictetus

“أتمنى لكِ اليأس يا حبيبتي؛ لكي تصيرين مبدعة. اليائسون هم المبدعون، لا تنتظريني ولا تنتظري أحدًا. انتظري الفكرة، لا تنتظري المفكّر. انتظري القصيدة، ولا تنتظري الشاعر. انتظري الثورة، ولا تنتظري الثائر. المفكّر يخطئ، والشاعر يكذب، والثائر يتعب.”
― محمود درويش, يوميات الحزن العادي

“أجمل ما في الصدفة أنها خالية من الإنتظار”
― محمود درويش

“الخوف لا يمنع من الموت و لكنه يمنع من الحياة.”
― نجيب محفوظ, أولاد حارتنا

“Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.”
― William Shakespeare, Macbeth

“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”
― Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, A Life For A Life

“Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgandy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“حين ينتهي الحُب , أَدرك انه لم يكن حُباً
الحبّ لا بد أن يُعاش , لا أن يُتذَكر!”
― محمود درويش

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.”
― Annie Dillard, The Writing Life: The Classic Essay Collection on the Creative Process

“I have spread my dreams under your feet.
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
― W.B. Yeats

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“I guess when you are young, you believe that you will meet many people with whom you'll connect with, but later in life you realize it only happens a few times.”
― Julie Delpy, Before Sunrise & Before Sunset: Two Screenplays

“Beautiful things don't ask for attention.”
― James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
― Dr. Seuss

“Compassion is the basis of morality.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“الدفء الذي يحتوينا بعد تناول كوب القهوة أو الشاي يجعلنا أكثر اشتياقًا إلى دفئٍ يحتوي قلوبنا وضمائرنا”
― سلمى مهدي

“ثمة تاجر كبير، أرسل ابنه ليكتشف سر السعادة عند أكثر الرجال حكمة، مشى الولد أربعين يوماً في الصحراء، ووصل أخيرا أمام قصر جميل يقع على قمة جبل، وهناك كان يعيش الحكيم الذي يجدُّ في البحث عنه.
فبدل أن يلتقي رجلاً مباركاً، فإن بطلنا داخل صالة تعج بنشاط كثيف: تجار يدخلون ويخرجون، وأناس يثرثرون، وفي إحدى الزوايا فرقة موسيقية صغيرة تعزف ألحاناً هادئة، وكان هناك مائدة محمّلة بمأكولات من أطيب وأشهى ما تنتج تلك البقعة من العالم. هذا هو الحكيم الذي يتحدث مع هذا وذلك، وكان على الشاب أن يصبر طيلة ساعتين حتى يأتي دوره.
أصغى الحكيم إلى الشاب الذي كان شرح له دوافع زيارته، لكن الحكيم أجابه أن لا وقت لديه كي يكشف له سر السعادة، وطلب منه القيام بجولة في القصر ثم العودة لرؤيته بعد ساعتين.
- أريد أن أطلب منك معروفاً ـ أضاف الحكيم وهو يعطي إلى الشاب ملعقة كان قد صب فيها قطرتين من الزيت - ، أمسك الملعقة بيدك طوال جولتك وحاول ألا ينسكب الزيت منها.
أخذ الشاب يهبط، ويصعد سلالم القصر، مثبتاً عينيه دائماً على الملعقة، وبعد ساعتين عاد إلى حضرة الحكيم.
- إذاً ـ سأل هذا، هل رأيت السجاد العجمي الموجود في صالة الطعام؟ هل رأيت الحديثة التي أمضى كبير الحدائقيين سنوات عشرة في تنظيمها؟ هل لاحظت أروقة مكتبتي الرائعة؟
كان على الشاب المرتبك أن يعترف بأنه لم يرَ شيئاً من كل هذا على الإطلاق، فشاغله الوحيد كان ألا تنسكب قطرتا الزيد التي عهد له الحكيم بهما.
- حسن، عد وتعرّف على عجائب عالمي - قال له الحكيم - فلا يمكن الوثوق برجل تجهل البيت الذي يسكنه.
اطمأن الشاب أكثر، وأخذا الملعقة، وعاد يتجول في القصر، معيراً انتباهه هذه المرة لكل روائع الفن التي كانت معلقة على الجدران، وفي السقوف، رأي البساتين والجبال المحيطة بها وروعة الزهور، والإتقان في وضع كل واحدة من تلك الروائع في مكانها المناسب، وعند عودته إلى الحكيم، روى له ما رآه بالتفصيل.
- ولكن أين قطرتي الزيت اللتين كنتُ عهدت لك بهما؟
نظر الشاب إلى الملعقة ولاحظ أنه قد سكبها.
- حسنٌ ـ قال حكيم الحكماء ـ هاك النصيحة الوحيدة التي سأقولها لك: " سرّ السعادة هو بأن تنظر إلى عجائب الدنيا كلّها، ولكن دون أن تنسى أبداً وجود قطرتي الزيت في الملعقة.”
― باولو كويلو, The Alchemist

“Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“أشياؤنا تموت مثلنا
لكنها لا تُدفن معنا”
― محمود درويش, أثر الفراشة

“After Years

Today, from a distance, I saw you
walking away, and without a sound
the glittering face of a glacier
slid into the sea. An ancient oak
fell in the Cumberlands, holding only
a handful of leaves, and an old woman
scattering corn to her chickens looked up
for an instant. At the other side
of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times
the size of our own sun exploded
and vanished, leaving a small green spot
on the astronomer's retina
as he stood on the great open dome
of my heart with no one to tell.”
― Ted Kooser, Delights and Shadows

“Remember how long you have been putting off these things, and how often you have received an opportunity from the gods, and yet do not use it. You must now at last perceive of what universe you are a part, and from what administrator of the universe your existence flows, and that a limit of time is fixed for you, which if you do not use for clearing away the clouds from your mind, it will go and you will go, and it will never return.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Yours is the light by which my spirit's born: - you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.”
― E.E. Cummings