Zeinab Alalfy > Zeinab 's Quotes

“It was a wonderful night, such a night as is only possible when we are young, dear reader.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, White Nights

“To love is to suffer and there can be no love otherwise.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

“Power is given only to him who dares to stoop and take it ... one must have the courage to dare.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions and coarse pleasures in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in his vices reaches complete beastiality, and it all comes from lying continually to others and himself. A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. it sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn't it? And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked up on a word and made a mountain out of a pea--he knows all of that, and still he is the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility...”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“Those three things - autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward - are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

“It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. And it’s the biggest nine- and ten-year-olds who get the most coaching and practice. Success is the result of what sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

“You can’t concentrate on doing anything if you are thinking, “What’s gonna happen if it doesn’t go right?”
― Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

“Outliers are those who have been given opportunities—and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

“إن على الإنسان أن يتعلم كيف يعيش أولاً، قبل أن يلوم الآخرين.”
― دوستويفسكي

“إن من يحلم بالحب يشعر بظمأ إلى عمل مباشر بطولي يحققه بسرعة وينال به إعجاب الناس، حتى لقد يصل بهذه الطريقة إلى التضحية بحياته راضيًا شريطة ألا يدوم الأمر زمنًا طويلًا، وإنما يتم بسرعة، كما لو كان على مسرح تراه الأبصار وتمدحه الألسن.”
― فيودور دوستويفسكي, الأخوة كارامازوف

“وإذا كان الزوج طيبًا شريفًا فلست أجد ما يدعو إلى زوال الحب”
― دوستويفسكي

“لا تؤاخذني على أنني كنت حزينة ذلك الحزن كله طوال الوقت. والحق أنني كنت مسرورة سعيدة جدًا. ولكن أجمل لحظات سعادتي لا بد أن يخالطها دائمًا شيء من حزن.”
― فيودور دوستويفسكي, Poor Folk

“I am a dreamer. I know so little of real life that I just can't help re-living such moments as these in my dreams, for such moments are something I have very rarely experienced. I am going to dream about you the whole night, the whole week, the whole year. I feel I know you so well that I couldn't have known you better if we'd been friends for twenty years. You won't fail me, will you? Only two minutes, and you've made me happy forever. Yes, happy. Who knows, perhaps you've reconciled me with myself, resolved all my doubts.

When I woke up it seemed to me that some snatch of a tune I had known for a long time, I had heard somewhere before but had forgotten, a melody of great sweetness, was coming back to me now. It seemed to me that it had been trying to emerge from my soul all my life, and only now-

If and when you fall in love, may you be happy with her. I don't need to wish her anything, for she'll be happy with you. May your sky always be clear, may your dear smile always be bright and happy, and may you be for ever blessed for that moment of bliss and happiness which you gave to another lonely and grateful heart. Isn't such a moment sufficient for the whole of one's life?”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, White Nights

“Besides, nowadays, almost all capable people are terribly afraid of being ridiculous, and are miserable because of it.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“You will burn and you will burn out; you will be healed and come back again.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“What do you think?" shouted Razumihin, louder than ever, "you think I am attacking them for talking nonsense? Not a bit! I like them to talk nonsense. That's man's one privilege over all creation. Through error you come to the truth! I am a man because I err! You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes and very likely a hundred and fourteen. And a fine thing, too, in its way; but we can't even make mistakes on our own account! Talk nonsense, but talk your own nonsense, and I'll kiss you for it. To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's. In the first case you are a man, in the second you're no better than a bird. Truth won't escape you, but life can be cramped. There have been examples. And what are we doing now? In science, development, thought, invention, ideals, aims, liberalism, judgment, experience and everything, everything, everything, we are still in the preparatory class at school. We prefer to live on other people's ideas, it's what we are used to! Am I right, am I right?" cried Razumihin, pressing and shaking the two ladies' hands.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“It is impossible to exist without passion”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“If anyone on the verge of action should judge himself according to the outcome, he would never begin.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

“Leap of faith – yes, but only after reflection”
― Soren Kierkegaard

“The thing is to understand myself: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. That is what I now recognize as the most important thing.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“On the secretly blushing cheek is reflected the glow of the heart”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“Therefore do not deceive yourself! Of all deceivers fear most yourself!”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“With every increase in the degree of consciousness, and in proportion to that increase, the intensity of despair increases: the more consciousness the more intense the despair”
― Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening

“There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.”
― Soren Kierkegaard

“The only intelligent tactical response to life’s horror is to laugh defiantly at it”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“أن الحب سرٌ غامض لا يفهمه إلا الله، ويجب أن يظل خفيًا عن الأعيان مهما حدث، وإذا تم ذلك فإنه يكون أفضل وأشد قدسية، وسيحترم أحدهما الآخر، بل إن الكثير يتوقف على احترام أحدهما للآخر، وما أن يتحابا، وما أن يتزوجا على أساس ذلك الحب، فلا سبب هنالك يدعو إلى زواله، وإنما باستطاعتهما أن يحافظا عليه بالتأكيد، نادرًا ما يصعب الاحتفاظ بالحب.”
― دوستويفسكي