Dorra Wider

“Nous aimons des êtres, nous nous attachons à des choses, et tout ce petit monde grandit en nos coeurs et en nos esprits jusqu'à ce qu'il soit transfiguré par l'éclat de l'immortalité. Mais quand nous faisons l'expérience de leur fragilité, quand nous prenons conscience qu'elles ne sont pasd'airain mais en porcelaine, nos coeurs et nos esprits s'en retrouvent fêlés, pour toujours. Nous succombons alors à la folle tentation de descendre dans les caves profondes, en quête des morceaux brisés, obsédés par le désir aveugle de les recoller et de les tenir à nouveau entre nos mains. Nous nous risquons d'y demeurer à tout jamais, fragments de porcelaine disparates à notre tour, tels les débris d'une civilisation morte au fond de l'océan..”
― Mohamed Harmel, les rêves perdus de Leyla

“Perhaps the reader is astonished by the frankness with which I expose and emphasize my mediocrity; let him remember that frankness is the virtue most appropriate to a defunct. In life, the watchful eye of public opinion, the conflict of interests, the struggle of greed against greed oblige a man to hide his old rags, to conceal the rips and patches, to withhold from the world the revelations that he makes to his own conscience; and the greatest reward comes when a man, in so deceiving others, manages at the same time to deceive himself, for in such case he spares himself shame, which is a painful experience, and hypocrisy, which is a hideous vice. But in death, what a difference! what relief! what freedom! How glorious to throw away your cloak, to dump your spangles in a ditch, to unfold yourself, to strip off all your paint and ornaments, to confess plainly what you were and what you failed to be! For, after all, you have no neighbors, no friends, no enemies, no acquaintances, no strangers, no audience at all. The sharp and judicial eye of public opinion loses its power as soon as we enter the territory of death. I do not deny that it sometimes glances this way and examines and judges us, but we dead folk are not concerned about its judgment. You who still live, believe me, there is nothing in the world so monstrously vast as our indifference.”
― Machado de Assis, Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas

“L'avenir n'est pas aussi sombre que tu le crois. L'avenir sera ce que tu décideras aujourd’hui d'en faire.”
― Khaoula Hosni, Le Cauchemar Du Bathyscaphe

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein