Mohamed > Mohamed's Quotes

“For me, I think the greatest achievements of science is to allow humanity to realize that our world is comprehensible. Through science, rational thinking, we can understand how the universe works.”
― Jim Al-Khalili

“The difference between my beliefs and having a religious faith is that I am prepared to change my views in light of new evidence, but someone of a religious faith will just stick their fingers in the ears and say: 'I'm not listening, there's nothing you can say that will make me change my mind.”
― Jim Al-Khalili

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”
― Alan Wilson Watts

“We are pattern seekers, believers in a coherent world, in which regularities appear not by accident but as a result of mechanical causality or of someone´s intention. We do not expect to see regularity produced by a random process, and when we detect what appears to be a rule, we quickly reject the idea that the process is truly random. Random processes produce many sequences that convince people that the process is not random after all.”
― Kahneman

“وعندما اتضح لنابليون أن قواته أصغر من أن تفرض نفسها على المصريين، حاول أن يجعل الأئمة والقضاة والمفتين والعلماء المحليين يفسرون القرآن لصالح الجيش الفرنسي. ومن ثم دعا إلى مقر إقامته العلماء الستين الذين كانوا يتولون التدريس في الأزهر وأنعم عليهم بمراتب التكريم العسكرية الكاملة، ثم داهنهم نابليون بالإعراب عن إعجابه بالإسلام وبمحمد - صلى الله عليه وسلم -، وبتبجيله الواضح للقرآن، وكان فيما يبدو يعرفه خير المعرفة. ونجح في ذلك، وسرعان ما بدا أن سكان القاهرة قد فقدوا ارتيابهم بالمحتلين.
وبعدها أصدر نابليون تعليمات صارمة لنائبه كليبر بأن يدير مصر دائما، بعد رحيله، من خلال المستشرقين والزعماء الدينيين الإسلاميين الذين يستطيع المستشرقون استمالتهم، أما أي منهج سياسي آخر فهو باهظ التكاليف وبالغ الحمق.”
― Edward W. Said, Orientalism

“I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend”
― Albert Camus

“When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
― Thich Nhat Hang, Stepping into Freedom: An Introduction to Buddhist Monastic Training

“If a blind man were to ask me “Have you got two hands?” I should not make sure by looking. If I were to have any doubt of it, then I don’t know why I should trust my eyes. For why shouldn’t I test my eyes by looking to find out whether I see my two hands? What is to be tested by what?”
― Wittgenstein, Ludwig, On Certainty

“O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life,
but exhaust the limits of the possible.”
― Pindar

“Learn what you are and be such.”
― Pindar

“In youth, our blood rises and becomes volatile. Desire, worry, and anxiety increase. External circumstances now direct the rise and fall of emotions. Will and intention become constrained by social conventions. Competition, conflict, and scheming are the norm in interactions with people. The approval and disapproval of others become important, and the honest and sincere expression of thoughts and feelings is lost.”
― Liezi, Lieh-tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living

“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they don't, they never were.”
― Kahlil Gibran

“Solitude is fine but you need someone to tell that solitude is fine.”
― Honoré de Balzac

“Reading brings us unknown friends”
― Honore de Balzac

“People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don't know is what what they do does.”
― Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason

“Why make yourself miserable saying things like, "Why do we have such bad luck? What has God done to us? What have we done to deserve this?" - all of which, if you understand reality and take it completely into your heart, are irrelevant and unsolvable. They are just things that nobody can know. Your situation is just an accident of life.”
― Richard P. Feynman, What Do You Care What Other People Think? Further Adventures of a Curious Character

“The real world is much smaller than the imaginary”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“You see, one of the best things about reading is that you'll always have something to think about when you're not reading.”
― James Patterson, The Christmas Wedding

“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

“It's a curious idea to reproduce when you don't even like life.”
― Michel Houellebecq, The Elementary Particles

“If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre

“A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms

“When information is cheap, attention becomes expensive.”
― James Gleick, The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood

“Control of consciousness determines the quality of life.”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are
presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new
evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is
extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it
is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize,
ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief.”
― Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

“It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.”
― Franz Kafka, The Trial

“No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.”
― Karl Popper