Ahmad Raza

“The April moon was up and the moonlight clutched at her heart with icy fingers. Everything was cold, oh so cold and grey! She had intended to call the driver and to tell him to bring the car, but now she walked away with slow steps deep into the shadows of the garden. All around her was a hush and a stillness and the whole pale world seemed to say, “This has been before, so many many times before; this will be again, so many times again.” “But not to me, not to me,” she cried. “This will also pass” sighed the cypress, “love is a dream!” “Then let me have my dream,” she whispered. “Go to him!” chirped the cricket, and she turned her steps towards the drive, when, from the shadows an owl hooted mournfully “No hope! No hope!” She sighed once again and looked up at the moon and it had such a cynical smile on its old face that she walked quickly towards the verandah...”
― Mumtaz Shah Nawaz, The Heart Divided

“Søren Kierkegaard: Truth always rests with the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion—and who, therefore, in the next instant (when it is evident that the minority is the stronger) assume its opinion… while truth again reverts to a new minority.”
― Neel Burton, Hypersanity: Thinking Beyond Thinking

“The novel wins by points, the short story by knockout.”
― Julio Cortázar

“When I was very young and in the cave of Trophonius I forgot to laugh. Then, when I got older, when I opened my eyes and saw the real world, I began to laugh and I haven’t stopped since. I saw that the meaning of life was to get a livelihood, that the goal of life was to be a High Court judge, that the bright joy of love was to marry a well-off girl, that the blessing of friendship was to help each other out of a financial tight spot, that wisdom was what the majority said it was, that passion was to give a speech, that courage was to risk being fined 10 rix-dollars, that cordiality was to say ‘You’re welcome’ after a meal, and that the fear of God was to go to communion once a year. That’s what I saw. And I laughed.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or: A Fragment of Life