مجتبى > مجتبى's Quotes

“وأقمنا في قلب الصحراء فرحًا للاشيء”
― الطيب صالح, Season of Migration to the North

“لا يوجد مأوى من الشمس التي تصعد إلى السماء بخطوات بطيئة وتصب أشعتها على الأرض ، كأن بينها وبين أهل الأرض ثأراً قديماً”
― الطيب صالح, موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال

“كنا نعزف؛ لأن المحيط شاسع، ومخيف. كنا نعزف؛ كي لا يشعر الناس بمرور الوقت، وكي ينسوا أين كانوا، ومن يكونون. كنا نعزف؛ ليرقصوا، فإذا رقصت لا تموت، تشعر بأنك إله.”
― Alessandro Baricco, Novecento. Un monologo

“مثل تلك الأمور التي يُفضّل ألّا تفكّر بها و إلّا جُننت. حين تسقط لوحة ما، حين تستيقظ ذات صباح وتكتشف بأنك لم تعد تحب شريكتك، حين تفتح جريدة وتقرأ اندلاع الحرب، حين ترى قطارًا وتفكّر في الرحيل، حين تنظر إلى نفسك في المرآة وتدرك أنك تشيخ”
― Alessandro Baricco, Novecento. Un monologo

“لم يكن لتلك الأنغام وجود، في أي مكان، قبل أن تعزفها أنامله. وحين ينهض عن البيانو، كانت تلك الأنغام تتلاشى، تختفي إلى الأبد.”
― Alessandro Baricco, Novecento. Un monologo

“في الرأس مجاز ضيق يدعى الموت
أجتازه كما الماء”
― آن ساكستون, وقت المياه، وقت الأشجار

“Wanting to Die

Since you ask, most days I cannot remember.
I walk in my clothing, unmarked by that voyage.
Then the almost unnameable lust returns.

Even then I have nothing against life.
I know well the grass blades you mention,
the furniture you have placed under the sun.

But suicides have a special language.
Like carpenters they want to know which tools.
They never ask why build.

Twice I have so simply declared myself,
have possessed the enemy, eaten the enemy,
have taken on his craft, his magic.

In this way, heavy and thoughtful,
warmer than oil or water,
I have rested, drooling at the mouth-hole.

I did not think of my body at needle point.
Even the cornea and the leftover urine were gone.
Suicides have already betrayed the body.

Still-born, they don't always die,
but dazzled, they can't forget a drug so sweet
that even children would look on and smile.

To thrust all that life under your tongue!—
that, all by itself, becomes a passion.
Death's a sad Bone; bruised, you'd say,

and yet she waits for me, year after year,
to so delicately undo an old wound,
to empty my breath from its bad prison.

Balanced there, suicides sometimes meet,
raging at the fruit, a pumped-up moon,
leaving the bread they mistook for a kiss,

leaving the page of the book carelessly open,
something unsaid, the phone off the hook
and the love, whatever it was, an infection.”
― Anne Sexton

“God owns heaven but He craves the earth.”
― Anne Sexton

“There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.

Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. By WHY I mean your purpose, cause or belief - WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?

People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.

We are drawn to leaders and organizations that are good at communicating what they believe. Their ability to make us feel like we belong, to make us feel special, safe and not alone is part of what gives them the ability to inspire us.

For values or guiding principles to be truly effective they have to be verbs. It’s not “integrity,” it’s “always do the right thing.” It’s not “innovation,” it’s “look at the problem from a different angle.” Articulating our values as verbs gives us a clear idea - we have a clear idea of how to act in any situation.

Happy employees ensure happy customers. And happy customers ensure happy shareholders—in that order.

Leading is not the same as being the leader. Being the leader means you hold the highest rank, either by earning it, good fortune or navigating internal politics. Leading, however, means that others willingly follow you—not because they have to, not because they are paid to, but because they want to.

You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.

Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them. People are either motivated or they are not. Unless you give motivated people something to believe in, something bigger than their job to work toward, they will motivate themselves to find a new job and you’ll be stuck with whoever’s left.

Trust is maintained when values and beliefs are actively managed. If companies do not actively work to keep clarity, discipline and consistency in balance, then trust starts to break down.

All organizations start with WHY, but only the great ones keep their WHY clear year after year.”
― Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

“Charisma has nothing to do with energy; it comes from a clarity of WHY. It comes from absolute conviction in an ideal bigger than oneself. Energy, in contrast, comes from a good night’s sleep or lots of caffeine. Energy can excite. But only charisma can inspire. Charisma commands loyalty. Energy does not.”
― Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

“Listen!
If stars are lit
It means there is someone who needs it,
It means someone wants them to be,
That someone deems those specks of spit
Magnificent!”
― Vladimir Mayakovsky, Listen!

“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequila.”
― Mitch Ratcliffe

“The great paradox of automation is that the desire to eliminate human labor always generates new tasks for humans.”
― Mary L. Gray, Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass – An Urgent Investigation into the Invisible Human Labor Powering AI and the Digital Economy

“A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”
― Italo Calvino, The Uses of Literature

“لقد طردتهم السماء كي لا ينقص جمالها , ولا تقبلهم الجحيمُ العميقة حتى لا يُحرِزَ الآثمون عليهم بعض الفخر..!”
― دانتي اليجييرى, The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso

“يا رُبات الشعر , يا أيتها العبقريّة العُليا , الآن ساعديني...
وأنت أيتها الذاكرة التي سجّلت ما رأيت , هنا سيظهرُ نُبلكـِ.”
― دانتي اليجييرى, The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso

“ما في المقامِ لذي عقلٍ وذي أدب
مِنْ رَاحَة ٍ فَدعِ الأَوْطَانَ واغْتَرِبِ

سافر تجد عوضاً عمَّن تفارقهُ
وَانْصِبْ فَإنَّ لَذِيذَ الْعَيْشِ فِي النَّصَبِ

إني رأيتُ وقوفَ الماء يفسدهُ
إِنْ سَال طَابَ وَإنْ لَمْ يَجْرِ لَمْ يَطِبِ

والأسدُ لولا فراقُ الأرض ما افترست
والسَّهمُ لولا فراقُ القوسِ لم يصب

والشمس لو وقفت في الفلكِ دائمة
لَمَلَّهَا النَّاسُ مِنْ عُجْمٍ وَمِنَ عَرَبِ

و البدر لولا أفول منه ما نظرت
إليه في كل حين عين مرتقب

والتَّبْرَ كالتُّرْبَ مُلْقَى في أَمَاكِنِه
والعودُ في أرضه نوعً من الحطب

فإن تغرَّب هذا عزَّ مطلبهُ
وإنْ تَغَرَّبَ ذَاكَ عَزَّ كالذَّهَبِِ”
― الإمام الشافعى

“لاحقاً،
إذا ما حدثَ وهويتِ إلى مداركِ اليأس،
فلقد فعلت ذلك وحدك.”
― Anne Sexton, وقت المياه، وقت الأشجار

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”
― William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

“The world is a sea in which we all must surely drown.”
― Peter Ackroyd, English Music