Walid Jebbour

“And do you think that unto such as you
A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew
God gave a secret, and denied it me?
Well, well—what matters it? Believe that, too!”
― Omar Khayyâm, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

“Beauty! Art! Wit!
Wonderment! Humility!
Arrogance! Style!
Virtue! Decency!
Patience!
And all the others,
Gone, trampled by the
Newly-polished jack boots
Of the clog-suited society.
I'm a stranger here, from
Another planet;
Not spotted yet, but
Getting peculiar stares>
Forbidden entrance to
All the places where
Air remains,
Where green is true
and water unmolested.
In any other time,
(Excepting Attila's)
I'd be a hero.
Why, they'd even name
An alley after me
And put a blotting-paper
Plaque on all my doors.
Not because I was great
But because I insisted on
All the words and ways rejected by
Those who wait ferally
In the ancient trees.”
― Alec Wilder

“You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power—he's free again.”
― Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Двести лет вместе

“To define is to limit.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray