“We have given sorrow many words, but a passion for life few.”
― Exuberance: The Passion for Life
― Exuberance: The Passion for Life
“That room - once you enter it, you never really leave. You can forget you're there, you can go on as if you hold the reins, that the course of your life, yeah even its length, will reflect the force of your character and the wisdom of your judgments. And then you hit an icy path on a turn one sunny March day and the wheel in your hands becomes a joke and you no more than a spectator to your own dreamy slide toward the verge, and then you remember where you are.”
― Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories
― Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories
“Lots of people perish on the highways. All those faces should be preserved, engagements kept, promises upheld. Impossible. I walked out instantly. Fleeing the scene of a crime. That kind of game can destroy you. Anyway, I've never known who I was. I authorize my biographer to simply call me "a man," and I wish him luck. I've been unable to lengthen my stride, my breath, or my sentences. He won't understand the first thing about this story. Neither do I. We're even.”
― La Ronde de nuit
― La Ronde de nuit
“What drives us to despair is not the immensity of our unsatisfied desires, but the moment when our fledgling passion discovers its own emptiness. Insatiable desire for passionate knowledge of one pretty girl after another stems from anxiety and from fear of love, so afraid are we of never encountering anything but objects. The dawn when lovers leave each other's arms is the same dawn that breaks on the execution of revolutionaries without a revolution. Isolation a deux cannot prevail over the isolation of all. Pleasure is broken off prematurely and lovers find themselves naked in the world, their actions suddenly ridiculous and feeble. No love is possible in an unhappy world.”
― The Revolution of Everyday Life
― The Revolution of Everyday Life
“يروي ابن خلدون قصة طريفة أن وزيراً اعتقله سلطانه هو وابنه الصغير ومكث في السجن سنين نشأ فيها الولد وكبر؛ فكلما نضج عقل الولد أخذ يسأل أباه عن لحم الغنم الذي يؤتى به إلى السجن لطعامهما: من أي الحيوانات هو؟ إنّ الولد لم ير الغنم في حياته، وكل ما رأى من الحيوانات في سجنه هو الفأر وحده.. فتصور أن الغنم مثل الفأر وأبوه ينكر عليه ذلك ولكن ظل الولد على رؤيته حتى خرج وشاهد الغنم!
روى ابن خلدون هذه القصة ليبين بها كيف أن تصورات الإنسان لا تخرج عن نطاق ما يألفه ويعتاد عليه في بيئته المحدودة”
― منطق ابن خلدون
روى ابن خلدون هذه القصة ليبين بها كيف أن تصورات الإنسان لا تخرج عن نطاق ما يألفه ويعتاد عليه في بيئته المحدودة”
― منطق ابن خلدون
Mad’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Mad’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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