Azazel

“It was as though his voice came to me from another world. The man continued skillfully to draw a terrible picture of a werewolf who had been the reason for two girls committing suicide, had wrecked the life of a married woman and killed his own wife — an egoist whose whole life had been directed to the quest of pleasure. Once it occurred to me in my stupor, as I sat there listening to my former teacher, Professor Maxwell Foster- Keen, trying to save me from the gallows, that I should stand up and shout at the court: "This Mustafa Sa’eed does not exist. He’s an illusion, a lie. I ask of you to rule that the lie be killed." But I remained as lifeless as a heap of ashes.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“حمّل صاحب الخطيئة وزر خطيئته
وحمّل المعتدِيْ إثم اعتدائه
ولكن كن رحيماً في العقابِ لئلا يهلك ولا تهمله فيمعن في الشرّ”
― طه باقر, ملحمة كلكامش أوديسة العراق الخالدة

“As your attorney, I advise you to tell me where you put the goddamn mescaline.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

“My third maxim was to endeavor always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world, and in general, accustom myself to the persuasion that, except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power; so that when we have done our best in things external to us, all wherein we fail of success is to be held, as regards us, absolutely impossible: and this single principle seemed to me sufficient to prevent me from desiring for the future anything which I could not obtain, and thus render me contented”
― René Descartes, Discourse on Method