Alaa Hamsho > Alaa's Quotes

“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.”
― Lao Tsu, Tao Teh Ching

“When reason fails, the devil helps!”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

“A woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it.”
― D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover

“If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave.”
― Mo Willems, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs

“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think”
― Socrates

“Do you hate people?”

“I don't hate them...I just feel better when they're not around.”
― Charles Bukowski, Barfly

“You have to die a few times before you can really
live.”
― Charles Bukowski, The People Look Like Flowers at Last

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
― Charles Bukowski

“Find what you love and let it kill you.”
― Charles Bukowski

“the free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”
― Charles Bukowski, Tales of Ordinary Madness

“فمع أن القرآن يقول أن النميمة وقذف الناس أثم كبير، قلما يبذل البشر أي جهد لكبح أنفسهم عن ممارسة ذلك . فهم لا يكفون عن إدانة شاربي الخمر، أو البحث عن النساء الزانيات لرجمهن، لكن عندما يتعلق الأمر بالنميمة التي هي أثم أعظم بكثير في نظر الله ، فإنهم لا يعرفون أنهم يرتكبون إثما.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“Each time I say good-bye to a place I like, I feel like I am leaving a part of me behind. I guess whether we choose to travel as much as Marco Polo did or stay in the same spot from cradle to grave, life is a sequence of births and deaths. Moments are born and moments die. For new experiences to come to light, old ones need to wither away.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“East, West, South or North makes little difference. No matter what your destination, just be sure to make every journey, a journey within. If you travel within, you’ll travel the whole wide world and beyond.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“إنها القاعدة الأولي يا أخي: إن الطريقة التي نرى فيها الله ما هي إلا انعكاس للطريقة التي نرى فيها أنفسنا.فإذا لم يكن الله يجلب إلى عقولنا سوى الخوف والملامة ،فهذا يعني أن قدرا كبيرا من الخوف والملامة يتدفق في نفوسنا. أما إذا رأينا الله مفعما بالمحبة والرحمة ،فإننا نكون كذلك.”
― إليف شافاق, The Forty Rules of Love

“Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“وتقول قاعدة أخرى:
لا يعني الصبر أن تتحمل المصاعب سلبا، بل يعني أن تكون بعيد النظر بحيث تثق بالنتيجة النهائية التي ستتمخض عن أي عملية.
ماذا يعني الصبر؟ أن تنظر إلى الشوكة وترى الوردة ، أن تنظر إلى الليل وترى الفجر.
أما نفاد الصبر فيعني أن تكون قصير النظر ولا تتمكن من رؤية النتيجة.

إن عشاق الله لا ينفد صبرهم مطلقاََ ٬ لأنهم يعرفون أنه لكي يصبح الهلال بدراََ ٬ فهو يحتاج إلى وقت.”
― إليف شافاق, The Forty Rules of Love

“عندما يدخل عاشق حقيقي لله لأي حانة، فإنها تصبح غرفة صلاته, لكن عندما يدخل شارب الخمر إلى الغرفة نفسها، فإنها تصبح خمارته.
ففي كل شيء نفعله، قلوبنا هي المهمة، لا مظاهرنا الخارجية.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“It is never too late to ask yourself, ‘Am I ready to change the life I am living? Am I ready to change within?’ Even if a single day in your life is the same as the day before, it surely is a pity. At every moment and with each new breath, one should be renewed and renewed again. There is only one way to be born into a new life: to die before death.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“البشر يميلون إلى الاستخفاف بما لا يمكنهم فهمه”
― إليف شافاق, The Forty Rules of Love

“Love is a form of prejudice. You love what you need, you love what makes you feel good, you love what is convenient. How can you say you love one person when there are ten thousand people in the world that you would love more if you ever met them? But you'll never meet them. All right, so we do the best we can. Granted. But we must still realize that love is just the result of a chance encounter. Most people make too much of it. On these grounds a good fuck is not to be entirely scorned. But that's the result of a chance meeting too. You're damned right. Drink up. We'll have another.”
― Charles Bukowski

“The average person wastes his life. He has a great deal of energy but he wastes it. The life of an average person seems at the end utterly meaningless…without significance. When he looks back…what has he done?


MIND

The mind creates routine for its own safety and convenience. Tradition becomes our security. But when the mind is secure it is in decay. We all want to be famous people…and the moment we want to be something…we are no longer free.

Intelligence is the capacity to perceive the essential…the what is. It is only when the mind is free from the old that it meets everything new…and in that there’s joy. To awaken this capacity in oneself and in others is real education.

SOCIETY

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Nature is busy creating absolutely unique individuals…whereas culture has invented a single mold to which we must conform. A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person because he conforms to a pattern. He repeats phrases and thinks in a groove. What happens to your heart and your mind when you are merely imitative, naturally they wither, do they not?

The great enemy of mankind is superstition and belief which is the same thing. When you separate yourself by belief tradition by nationally it breeds violence. Despots are only the spokesmen for the attitude of domination and craving for power which is in the heart of almost everyone. Until the source is cleared there will be confusion and classes…hate and wars. A man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country to any religion to any political party. He is concerned with the understanding of mankind.

FEAR

You have religion. Yet the constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear. You can only be afraid of what you think you know. One is never afraid of the unknown…one is afraid of the known coming to an end. A man who is not afraid is not aggressive. A man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free and peaceful mind.

You want to be loved because you do not love…but the moment you really love, it is finished. You are no longer inquiring whether someone loves you or not.


MEDITATION

The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.

In meditation you will discover the whisperings of your own prejudices…your own noises…the monkey mind. You have to be your own teacher…truth is a pathless land. The beauty of meditation is that you never know where you are…where you are going…what the end is.

Down deep we all understand that it is truth that liberates…not your effort to be free. The idea of ourselves…our real selves…is your escape from the fact of what you really are. Here we are talking of something entirely different….not of self improvement…but the cessation of self.

ADVICE

Take a break with the past and see what happens. Release attachment to outcomes…inside you will feel good no matter what. Eventually you will find that you don’t mind what happens. That is the essence of inner freedom…it is timeless spiritual truth.

If you can really understand the problem the answer will come out of it. The answer is not separate from the problem. Suffer and understand…for all of that is part of life. Understanding and detachment…this is the secret.

DEATH

There is hope in people…not in societies not in systems but only in you and me. The man who lives without conflict…who lives with beauty and love…is not frightened by death…because to love is to die.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti, Think on These Things

“ففي نهاية المطاف أنت خلاصة الكتب التي قرأتها و الأشخاص الذين عرفت”
― فهد عامر الأحمدي, نظرية الفستق

“The secret to happiness, at least to peace of mind, is knowing how to separate sex from love. And, if possible, eliminating romantic love from your life, which is the love that makes you suffer. That way, I assure you, you live with greater tranquility and enjoy things more.”
― Mario Vargas Llosa, Travesuras de la niña mala

“May you live every day of your life.”
― Jonathan Swift

“Life really does favor the obsessed. Great fortune truly does shine on those mesmerized by their gorgeous ambitions. And the universe most definitely supports the human being unwilling to surrender to the forces of fear, rejection and self-doubt.”
― Robin S. Sharma, The Everyday Hero Manifesto: Activate Your Positivity, Maximize Your Productivity, Serve The World

“Real filth is the one inside. The rest simply washes off. There is only one type of dirt that cannot be cleansed with pure waters, and that is the stain of hatred and bigotry contaminating the soul. You can purify your body through abstinence and fasting, but only love will purify your heart.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“If you want to strengthen your faith, you will need to soften inside. For your faith to be rock solid, your heart needs to be as soft as a feather. Through an illness, accident, loss or fright, one way or another, we all are faced with incidents that teach us how to become less selfish and judgmental, and more compassionate and generous. Yet some of us learn the lesson and manage to become milder, while some others end up becoming even harsher than before. The only way to get closer to Truth is to expand your heart so that it will encompass all humanity and still have room for more Love.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“Earth: the things that are solid, absorbed and still.
Water: the things that are fluid, changing and unpredictable.
Wind: the things that shift, evolve and challenge.
Fire: the things that damage, devastate and distroy.
The void: the things that are present through their absence”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“القاعدة العاشرة : لا يوجد فرق كبير بين الشرق والغرب, ولا الشمال والجنوب .. فمهما كانت وجهتك يجب أن تجعل الرحلة التي تقوم بها في داخلك. فإذا سافرت في داخلك فسيكون بوسعك اجتياز العالم الشاسع وما وراءه.”
― إليف شافاق, The Forty Rules of Love

“Father, I am from a different egg than your other children. Think of me as a duckling raised by hens. I am not a domestic bird destined to spend his life in a chicken coop. The water that scares you rejuvenates me. For unlike you I can swim, and swim I shall. The ocean is my homeland. If you are with me, come to the ocean. If not, stop interfering with me and go back to the chicken coop.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love