Raheem Amer > Raheem's Quotes

“According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.”
― Plato, The Symposium

“Sean: …………And I'd ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, "once more unto the breach dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap, watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help. I'd ask you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn't know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms "visiting hours" don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. And look at you... I don't see an intelligent, confident man... I see a scared shitless kid. But you're a genius Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my life apart. You're an orphan right?
[Will nods]
Sean: You think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are, because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally... I don't give a shit about all that, because you know what, I can't learn anything from you, I can't read in some book. Unless you want to talk about you, who you are. Then I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't want to do that do you sport? You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief.”
― Matt Damon

“ما لي وللناس كم يلحونني سفها ... ديني لنفسي ودين الناس للنـــاس”
― الحلاج, الحلاج: الأعمال الكاملة

“و الله ما طلعت شمس و لا غربت
إلا و حبك مقرون بأنفاسي

و لا جلست إلى قوم أحدثهم
إلا و أنت حديثي بين جلاسي

و لا ذكرتك محزونا ولا فرحا
إلا و أنت بقلبي بين وسواسي

و لا هممت بشرب الماء من عطش
إلا رأيت خيالا منك في الكاسِ

و لو قدرت على الإتيان جئتكم
سعيا على الوجه أو مشيا على الراسِ

و يا فتى الحي إن غنيت لي طربا
فغنني واسفا من قلبك القاسي

ما لي و للناس كم يلحونني سفها
ديني لنفسي و دين الناس للناسِ”
― الحلاج

“الـــعَيْـنُ تُبـْـصِرُ مَن تَهْوَى وتَفقده
ونَاظِرُ القَلْبِ لا يَخْلُو مِـــن الـنَظَر
إن كَانَ لَيْسَ مَعْى فَالذِكرُ مِنهُ مَعْي
يَرَاهُ قَلْبِى وإنّ غَابَ عَنْ بَصَرِي
ُالوَجْدُ يُطربُ مَن فِي الوَجْدِ رَاحتٌه
ُوالوَجْدُ عِنْدَ وُجُودِ الحَقِّ مَفَقُود
قَدْ كَانَ يُوحِشُني وَجدْي ويُؤنِسُني
ُلِرُؤيةِ وَجْدِ مَن فِي الوَجْدِ موجود”
― الحلاج

“It was a comet. The boy saw the comet and he felt as though his life had meaning. And when it went away, he waited his entire life for it to come back to him. It was more than just a comet because of what it brought to his life: direction, beauty, meaning. There are many who couldn't understand, and sometimes he walked among them. But even in his darkest hours, he knew in his heart that someday it would return to him, and his world would be whole again... And his belief in God and love and art would be re-awakened in his heart. The boy saw the comet and suddenly his life had meaning.”
― Lucas Scott

“What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.”
― Vincent Van Gogh

“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Tonight I can write the saddest lines
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Funny how you dig yourself into a hole by the teaspoon.”
― Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin

“Most important thing in life is learning how to fall.”
― Jeannette Walls, Half Broke Horses

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
― Mother Teresa

“I sold my soul for knowledge of the future, only to have that very pact render me forever ignorant (Gerald Tarrant).”
― C.S. Friedman, When True Night Falls

“If you really want to know something, you have to be willing to pay the price.”
― Haruki Murakami, After Dark

“Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric moved:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I shall endure.
All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, the Purgatorio and the Paradiso

“Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“Slowly, with many lost days, I come back to life.”
― Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay

“You start dying slowly
if you do not travel,
if you do not read,
If you do not listen to the sounds of life,
If you do not appreciate yourself.

You start dying slowly
When you kill your self-esteem;
When you do not let others help you.

You start dying slowly
If you become a slave of your habits,
Walking everyday on the same paths…
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colours
Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.

You start dying slowly
If you avoid to feel passion
And their turbulent emotions;
Those which make your eyes glisten
And your heart beat fast.

You start dying slowly
If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love,
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain,
If you do not go after a dream,
If you do not allow yourself,
At least once in your lifetime,
To run away from sensible advice.”
― Martha Medeiros

“There was rarely an obvious branching point in a person's life. People changed slowly, over time. You didn't take one step, then find yourself in a completely new location. You first took a little step off the path to avoid some rocks. For a while, you walked alongside the path, but then you wandered out a little way to step on softer soil. Then you stopped paying attention as you drifted farther and farther away. Finally, you found yourself in the wrong city, wondering why the signs on the roadway hadn't led you better.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Emperor's Soul

“Truth is the offspring of silence and meditation. I keep the subject constantly before me and wait 'til the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into a full and clear light.”
― Isaac Newton

“Never worry about being obsessive. I like obsessive people. Obsessive people make great art.”
― Susan Sontag

“My library is an archive of longings.”
― Susan Sontag, As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980

“علاج التعصب ليس بإضعاف الولاء بل إشاعة روح التعقل والحكمة في حمل هذا الولاء وفي التعبير عنه، بحيث لايتحول الولاء إلى كراهية للغير. وتقوية الحس الأخلاقي تكون بترسيخ ولاء المرء لدينه وثقافته دون افتئات على حق أصحاب أي دين آخر أو ثقافة أخرى في التعبير عن ولائهم لدينهم أو ثقافاتهم”
― جلال أمين, خرافة التقدم والتخلف: العرب والحضارة الغربية في مستهل القرن الواحد والعشرين

“التقدم التكنولوجي لا يزيد عن أنه يؤدي بالمجتمع "إلى السير إلى الخلف بكفاءة أكبر!”
― جلال أمين, خرافة التقدم والتخلف: العرب والحضارة الغربية في مستهل القرن الواحد والعشرين

“من الخطأ أن نتصور أن النظم الاجتماعية تسقط كما تسقط الحكومات بثورة أو انفجار، وتتغير كما تتغير الدساتير أو القوانين. النظم الاجتماعية تتغير وتتحول ببطء وبالتدريج. قد تطرأ عليها من التطورات ما قد يجعلها في النهاية شيئًا مختلفًا جدًا عمّا كانت عليه في البداية. وقد يحدث هذا دون أي ثورة أو انفجار، بل وربما حدث هذا والناس مستمرون في إطلاق نفس الاسم عليها، وكأن شيئًا لم يحدث.”
― جلال أمين, خرافة التقدم والتخلف: العرب والحضارة الغربية في مستهل القرن الواحد والعشرين

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore