Mac

“I am not a good enough writer to convey the intense emotion I felt over my newfound self-respect. It was a rehabilitation, if not a new life. This imaginary baptism, the immersion in purity, the elevation of my being above the filth in which I'd been mired and, overnight, this sense of responsibility, made me into a different man. The convict's complexes that make him hear his chains and suspect he's being watched even after he's freed, everything I'd seen, gone through, suffered, everything that was making me tarnished, rotten and dangerous, passively obedient on the surface but terribly dangerous in rebellion, all that had disappeared as if by a miracle.”
― Henri Charrière, Papillon

“سمّاني الناس مجنونا، غير أن العلم لم يكشف لنا بعد فيما إذا كان الجنون ذروة الذكاء أم لا، وفيما إذا كان كل ما يسمى مجدا وكل ما يسمى عمقا ليسا آتيين من مرض فكري، من حالة روحية تتمجد وتنمو على حساب الذهن العام. هؤلاء الذين يحلمون وهم أيقاظ يعرفون أشياء كثيرة تفلت من هؤلاء الذين لا يحلمون إلا وهم نيام. إنهم يلتقطون - في رؤاهم المغيّمة - لمحات من الأبدية، وإذ يستيقظون يرتعشون لتنبههم أنهم كانوا للحظةٍ على ضفة السر العظيم. إنهم يدركون - جزءا فجزءا - شيئا من معرفة الخير، وأكثر أيضا من علم الشر. وهم - بلا دفة ولا بوصلة - يخترقون المحيط الواسع للضياء الذي لا يوصف.”
― إدجار آلان بو, مغامرات وأسرار

“Like a sculptor, if necessary,
carve a friend out of stone.
Realize that your inner sight is blind
and try to see a treasure in everyone.”
― Rumi Jalalu'l-Din

“Whatever I thought right seemed bad to others;
whatever seemed wrong to me,
others approved of.
I ran into feuds wherever I found myself,
I met disfavor wherever I went;
if I longed for happiness, I only stirred up misery;
so I had to be called “Woeful”:
Woe is all I possess.”
― Caleb Carr, The Alienist