Edin

“Why, you may ask, am I telling you all these abominations? So that you should know, my dear sirs, these are not things of the past — far from it! I know that you prefer beautifully told, fictitious horrors: the fantastic and the terrifying give you an agreeable thrill! But I know what is really terrifying, the horrors of everyday life, and I claim the indisputable right to shock you with stories about it, to make you take stock of your own lives and the world in which you live. We all live vile dirty lives — that's the point of these stories! I love people and I would not wish to horrify them. But I will not be sentimental nor conceal the terrible truth with the tinsel words of a beautiful lie. We must go forward with life! We must take from it into our hearts and heads everything that is good and humane so that it becomes a living part of us.”
― Maxim Gorky, My Apprenticeship

“Bismilahir-rahmanir-rahim!
I call to witness the ink, the quill, and the script,
which flows from the quill;
I call to witness the faltering shadows of the sinking evening,
the night and all she enlivens;
I call to witness the moon when she waxes, and the sunrise when it dawns.
I call to witness the Resurrection Day and the soul that accuses itself;
I call to witness time, the beginning and end of all things - to witness that every man always suffers loss.”
― Meša Selimović, Death and the Dervish

“I was consumed by a restless curiosity, a thirst for knowing everything in the shortest possible time. This is a side of my character that has prevented me all my life from devoting myself seriously to any one thing.”
― Maxim Gorky, My Universities

“Justice in its turn stands on four pillars: Deep comprehension, abundant knowledge, blossoms of wisdom, and flowerbeds of restraint.”
― al-Qadi al-Qudai, A Treasury of Virtues: Sayings, Sermons, and Teachings of Ali, with the One Hundred Proverbs, attributed to al-Jahiz