Z > Z's Quotes

“أنت التي تعلقت بي لتكتشفي ما تجهلينه.. وأنا الذي تعلقت بك لأنسى ما كنت أعرفه.. أكان ممكنا لحبنا أن يدوم؟”
― أحلام مستغانمي, ذاكرة الجسد

“I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.”
― Oscar Wilde

“This land does not belong to you. It belongs to that ancient shepherd whose ghost is standing next to you, though you refuse to see it. Since you do not know how to share, take your vineyards and your bridges, your paved roads and your railway tracks, your cities and your gardens and give back what remains to its rightful owners".”
― Yasmina Khadra, Ce que le jour doit à la nuit

“Sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves.”
― Joni Eareckson Tada, The God I Love

“من سوء حظي أَني نجوت مرارًا
من الموت حبًا
ومن حسن حظي أني ما زلت هشًا
لأدخل في التجربةْ!
يقول المحب المجرب في سره:
هو الحب كذبتنا الصادقةْ
فتسمعه العاشقةْ
وتقول : هو الحب، يأتي ويذهب
كالبرق والصاعقة”
― محمود درويش, لا أريد لهذي القصيدة أن تنتهي

“Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

“Mediocrity's like a spot on a shirt—it never comes off.”
― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance

“I'm not ready to let the youthful part of myself go yet. If maturity means becoming a cynic, if you have to kill the part of yourself that is naive and romantic and idealistic - the part of you that you treasure most - to claim maturity, is it not better to die young but with your humanity intact?”
― Kenneth Cain, Emergency Sex: And Other Desperate Measures

“If you don't work on yourself, then much of your politics is merely projections. We have to walk our talk and do the inner work that allows the outer work to be authentic and also effective.”
― Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

“إن أكبر جريمه يمكن لأي أنسان أن يرتكبها ...كائنا من كان ..هي أن يعتقد ولو للحظه أن ضعف الآخريين و اخطاءهم هي التي تشكل حقه في الوجود على حسابهم ...وهي التي تبرر له أخطاءه و جرائمه”
― غسان كنفاني, عائد إلى حيفا

“كان عليكم ألا تخرجوا من حيفا . واذا لم يكن ذلك ممكنا فقد كان عليكم ألا تتركوا طفلا رضيعا في السرير . وإذا كان هذا أيضا مستحيلا فقد كان عليكم ألا تكفوا عن محاولة العودة ... أتقولون أن ذلك أيضا مستحيلا؟
لقد مضت عشرون سنة يا سيدي ! عشرون سنة ماذا فعلت خلالها كي تسترد ابنك؟ لو كنت مكانك لحملت السلاح من أجل هذا. أيوجد سبب أكثر قوة؟ عاجزون! عاجزون! مقيدون بتلك السلاسل الثقيلة من التخلف والشلل! لا تقل لي أنكم أمضيتم عشرين سنة تبكون! الدموع لا تسترد المفقودين ولا الضائعين ولا تجترح المعجزات! كل دموع الأرض لا تستطيع أن تحمل زورقا صغيرا يتسع لأبوين يبحثان عن طفلهما المفقود... ولقد أمضيت عشرين سنة تبكي... أهذا ما تقوله لي الآن؟ أهذا هو سلاحك التافه المفلول؟”
― غسان كنفاني, عائد إلى حيفا

“Amal,I believe that most Americans do not love as we do. It is not for any inherent deficiency or superiority in them. They live in the safe, shallow, parts that rarely push human emotions into the depths where we dwell.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“There is a sense of danger in leaving what you know, even if what you know isn’t much. These mill towns with their narrow lanes and often narrow minds were all I really knew and I feared that if I left it behind, I would lose it and not find anything to replace it. The other reason I didn’t want to go was because I wanted to be the kind of person who stays, who builds a stable and predictable life. But I wasn’t one of the people, nor would I ever be.
I had a vision for my life. It wasn’t clear, but it was beautiful and involved leaving my history and my poverty behind me. I wasn’t happy about who I was or where I was, but I didn’t worry about it. It didn’t define me. We’re always in the making. God always has us on his anvil, melting, bending and shaping us for another purpose.
It was time to change, to find a new purpose.”
― John William Tuohy

“I am convinced that the jealous, the angry, the bitter and the egotistical are the first to race to the top of mountains. A confident person enjoys the journey, the people they meet along the way and sees life not as a competition. They reach the summit last because they know God isn’t at the top waiting for them. He is down below helping his followers to understand that the view is glorious where ever you stand.”
― Shannon Alder

“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

“It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“إذا لم تتمكني من إيجاد سبب كي تحبي الحياة التي تعيشينها، فلا تتظاهري بأنك تحبين الحياة التي تعيشينها”
― Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul

“Either grant me the bliss of the ignorant or give me the strength to bear the knowledge.”
― Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul

“The Iron Rule of prudence for an Istanbulite Woman: If you are as fragile as a tea glass, either find a way to never encounter burning water and hope to marry an ideal husband or get yourself laid and broken as soon as possible. Alternatively, stop being a tea-glass woman!”
― Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul

“How on earth could she now tell Armanoush that, though only nineteen, she had known many men's hands and did not feel a speck of guilt for it? Besides, how could she ever reveal the truth without giving the wrong impression to an outsider about "the chastity of Turkish girls"?
This kind of "national responsibility" was utterly foreign to Asya Kasancı. Never before had she felt part of a collectivity and was accomplishing a pretty good impersonation of someone else, someone who had gotten patriotic overnight. How could she now step outside her national identity and be her pure, sinning self?”
― Elif Şafak, The Bastard of Istanbul

“If you have no reason or ability to accomplish anything, then practice the art of becoming.
If you have no reason or ability to practice the art of becoming, then just be.
If you don't have any reason or ability to just be, then endure.”
― Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul

“If you couldn't help harboring higher aspirations in life, you should at least harbor only simple desires, reduced in passion and ambition, as if you had been de-generized and now had only enough strength to be average".”
― Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul

“The widespread abuse of prisoners is a virtually foolproof indication that politicians are trying to impose a system--whether political, religious or economic--that is rejected by large numbers of the people they are ruling. Just as ecologists define ecosystems by the presence of certain "indicator species" of plants and birds, torture is an indicator species of a regime that is engaged in a deeply anti-democratic project, even if that regime happens to have come to power through elections.”
― Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

“It is easy to blur the truth with a simple linguistic trick: start your story from "Secondly." Yes, this is what Rabin did. He simply neglected to speak of what happened first. Start your story with "Secondly," and the world will be turned upside-down. Start your story with "Secondly," and the arrows of the Red Indians are the original criminals and the guns of the white men are entirely the victims. It is enough to start with "Secondly," for the anger of the black man against the white to be barbarous. Start with "Secondly," and Gandhi becomes responsible for the tragedies of the British.”
― Mourid Barghouti, I Saw Ramallah

“Often in his speeches and writings, Christopher Hitchens would issue a challenge to his audience: “Name me a moral action committed by a believer, or moral statement uttered by [a believer], that could not be made or uttered by a non-believer.”43 To this day, no one has been able to successfully name such an action or statement. Then, he would ask his audience to name an evil or immoral statement or act, made or performed by a believer, that can only be attributed to his or her religious faith. This part of the challenge was easy—there are numerous bad things that believers do as a direct result of their faith that nonbelievers don’t. And for the sake of completeness, let’s acknowledge that all bad things done by nonbelievers can be (and have been) done by believers as well.”
― Ali A. Rizvi, The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason

“But part of getting to know yourself is to unknow yourself—to let go of the limiting stories you’ve told yourself about who you are so that you aren’t trapped by them, so you can live your life and not the story you’ve been telling yourself about your life.”
― Lori Gottlieb, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed

“Stop worrying about your identity and concern yourself with the people you care about, ideas that matter to you, beliefs you can stand by, tickets you can run on. Intelligent humans make those choices with their brain and hearts and they make them alone. The world does not deliver meaning to you. You have to make it meaningful...and decide what you want and need and must do. It’s a tough, unimaginably lonely and complicated way to be in the world. But that’s the deal: you have to live; you can’t live by slogans, dead ideas, clichés, or national flags. Finding an identity is easy. It’s the easy way out.”
― Zadie Smith, On Beauty

“A memory without the emotional charge is called wisdom.”
― Joe Dispenza, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One

“It takes a lot of courage to fight biases and oppressive regimes, but it takes even greater courage to admit ignorance and venture into the unknown. Secular education teaches us that if we don’t know something, we shouldn’t be afraid of acknowledging our ignorance and looking for new evidence. Even if we think we know something, we shouldn’t be afraid of doubting our opinions and checking ourselves again. Many people are afraid of the unknown, and want clear-cut answers for every question. Fear of the unknown can paralyse us more than any tyrant. People throughout history worried that unless we put all our faith in some set of absolute answers, human society will crumble. In fact, modern history has demonstrated that a society of courageous people willing to admit ignorance and raise difficult questions is usually not just more prosperous but also more peaceful than societies in which everyone must unquestioningly accept a single answer. People afraid of losing their truth tend to be more violent than people who are used to looking at the world from several different viewpoints. Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

“When the faithful are asked whether God really exists, they often begin by talking about the enigmatic mysteries of the universe and the limits of human understanding. ‘Science cannot explain the Big Bang,’ they exclaim, ‘so that must be God’s doing.’ Yet like a magician fooling an audience by imperceptibly replacing one card with another, the faithful quickly replace the cosmic mystery with the worldly lawgiver. After giving the name of ‘God’ to the unknown secrets of the cosmos, they then use this to somehow condemn bikinis and divorces. ‘We do not understand the Big Bang – therefore you must cover your hair in public and vote against gay marriage.’ Not only is there no logical connection between the two, but they are in fact contradictory. The deeper the mysteries of the universe, the less likely it is that whatever is responsible for them gives a damn about female dress codes or human sexual behaviour.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century