Dana > Dana's Quotes

“If you want to know a country, read its writers.”
― Aminatta Forna

“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.”
― Khalil Gibran, Sand and Foam

“Silence before being born, silence after death: life is nothing but noise between two unfathomable silences.”
― Isabel Allende, Paula

“I learned very quickly that when you emigrate, you lose the crutches that have been your support; you must begin from zero, because the past is erased with a single stroke and no one cares where you’re from or what you did before.”
― Isabel Allende, Paula

“....If evil were a tangible thing, it would’ve been contained long ago. But evil is an insidious disease that can be transmitted with whispers and ill will.’
...
‘It’s terrifying to think that a mere ill wish could actually come true. It’s like sticking needles in a voodoo doll.’
Ramón let out a half-hearted laugh. ‘Yet that’s what we do all the time, isn’t it? We wish hard for the things we want. And believe that by doing so, we stand a chance of having them happen. Within reason, naturally.’ He cocked his head. ‘Well then, we’d be wrong to underestimate the power of thought, wouldn’t we?”
― Dana K. Haffar, Leah

“The car rolled slowly along the deserted corniche, headlights cleaving its way through Beirut by night. In gentle swerves to avoid potholes, the Mercedes waltzed along a straight road in a dance of death. Sick palm trees and parched grass divided the tarred road of civilization. The sea alone was testimony to God’s beautiful creation. But in its belly, corpses, limbs, garbage, and ordnance mingled with a sea life on the verge of extinction.”
― Dana K. Haffar, Beirut in Shades of Grey

“I said: what about my eyes?
He said: Keep them on the road.

I said: What about my passion?
He said: Keep it burning.

I said: What about my heart?
He said: Tell me what you hold inside it?

I said: Pain and sorrow.
He said: Stay with it. The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
― Rumi

“I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was. Likewise, I never imagined that home might be something I would miss.”
― Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

“Yo soy un hombre sincero
De donde crece la palma,
Y antes de morirme quiero
Echar mis versos del alma.

Yo vengo de todas partes,
Y hacia todas partes voy:
Arte soy entre las artes,
En los montes, monte soy.”
― José Martí