Naba’a

“It's been months since I last wrote. I've lived in a state of mental slumber, leading the life of someone else. I've felt, very often, a vicarious happiness. I haven't existed. I've been someone else. I've lived without thinking.”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

“Freedom is the possibility of isolation. You are free if you can withdraw from people, not having to seek them out for the sake of money, company, love, glory or curiosity, none of which can thrive in silence and solitude. If you can't live alone, you were born a slave. You may have all the splendours of the mind and the soul, in which case you're a noble slave, or an intelligent servant, but you're not free. And you can't hold this up as your own tragedy, for your birth is a tragedy of Fate alone. Hapless you are, however, if life itself so oppresses you that you're forced to become a slave. Hapless you are if, having been born free, with the capacity to be isolated and self-sufficient, poverty should force you to live with others.”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

“My boredom with everything has numbed me.”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

“إنها القاعدة الأولي يا أخي: إن الطريقة التي نرى فيها الله ما هي إلا انعكاس للطريقة التي نرى فيها أنفسنا.فإذا لم يكن الله يجلب إلى عقولنا سوى الخوف والملامة ،فهذا يعني أن قدرا كبيرا من الخوف والملامة يتدفق في نفوسنا. أما إذا رأينا الله مفعما بالمحبة والرحمة ،فإننا نكون كذلك.”
― إليف شافاق, The Forty Rules of Love