Khouloud Chaker

“To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

“و صمتك يصم أذني
و أنت أمامي ، و أفتقدك ، و أكرهك ...!”
― غادة السمان, الحب من الوريد إلى الوريد

“Why don't you tremble?"

"I'm not cold."

"Why don't you turn pale?"

"I am not sick."

"Why don't you consult my art?"

"I'm not silly.

The old crone "nichered" a laugh under her bonnet and bandage; she then drew out a short black pipe, and lighting it began to smoke. Having indulged a while in this sedative, she raised her bent body, took the pipe from her lips, and while gazing steadily at the fire, said very deliberately--"You are cold; you are sick; and you are silly."

"Prove it," I rejoined.

"I will, in few words. You are cold, because you are alone: no contact strikes the fire from you that is in you. You are sick; because the best of feelings, the highest and the sweetest given to man, keeps far away from you. You are silly, because, suffer as you may, you will not beckon it to approach, nor will you stir one step to meet it where it waits you.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“الصدق بالنيات لا بالبيان. والنيات يحجبها البيان. لذلك كان الناس في عذاب مستمر وقد اختلط عليهم صادقهم وكاذبهم. أما أنا قسم الإنسانية الساكت - فكيف أكذب؟
إنما تكذب النية الصالحة ببيانها الفاسد، وتكذب النية الفاسدة ببيانها الذي يقلد الصدق.”
― ميخائيل نعيمة, مذكرات الأرقش