Sara Dawood > Sara's Quotes

“Patience does not mean to passively endure. It means to be farsighted enough to trust the end result of a process. What does patience mean? It means to look at the thorn and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn. Impatience means to be so shortsighted as to not be able to see the outcome. The lovers of God never run out of patience, for they know that time is needed for the crescent moon to become full.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“It is never too late to ask yourself, ‘Am I ready to change the life I am living? Am I ready to change within?’ Even if a single day in your life is the same as the day before, it surely is a pity. At every moment and with each new breath, one should be renewed and renewed again. There is only one way to be born into a new life: to die before death.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“Whatever happens in your life, no matter how troubling things might seem, do not enter the neighborhood of despair. Even when all doors remain closed, God will open up a new path only for you. Be thankful!”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“Most of the problems of the world stem from linguistic mistakes and simple misunderstandings. Don't ever take words at face value. When you step into the zone of love, language as we know it becomes obsolete. That which cannot be put into words can only be grasped through silence.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“The midwife knows that when there is no pain, the way for the baby cannot be opened and the mother cannot give birth. Likewise, for a new Self to be born, hardship is necessary.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“Fret not where the road will take you. Instead concentrate on the first step. That's the hardest part and that's what you are responsible for. Once you take that step let everything do what it naturally does and the rest will follow. Do not go with the flow. Be the flow.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“The quest for Love changes us. There is no seeker among those who search for Love who has not matured on the way. The moment you start looking for Love, you start to change within and without.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“While the parts change, the whole always remains the same. For every thief who departs this world, a new one is born. And every decent person who passes away is replaced by a new one. In this way not only does nothing remain the same but also nothing ever really changes.”
― Elif Şhafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worry that you life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“Instead of resisting to changes, surrender. Let life be with you, not against you. If you think ‘My life will be upside down’ don’t worry. How do you know down is not better than upside? A good man complains of no one; he does not look to faults. A life without love is of no account. Don't ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, eastern or western…divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water. The universe is a complete unique entity. Everything and everyone is bound together with some invisible strings. Do not break anyone’s heart; do not look down on weaker than you. One’s sorrow at the other side of the world can make the entire world suffer; one’s happiness can make the entire world smile. Most of conflicts and tensions are due to language. Don't pay so much attention to the words. In love’s country, language doesn't have its place. Love's mute”
― Shams Tabrizi

“If you want to change the way others treat you, you
should first change the way you treat
yourself. Unless you learn to love yourself, fully
and sincerely, there is no way you can be loved. Once you achieve that stage, however, be thankful for every thorn others might throw at you. It is a sign that you will soon be showered in roses.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“Now, five years is nothing in a man's life except when he is very young and very old...

- Wang Lung”
― Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth

“The rich are always afraid.”
― Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth

“It is the end of a family- when they begin to sell their land. Out of the land we came and into we must go - and if you will hold your land you can live- no one can rob you of land.”
― Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth

“Out of the woman's great brown breast the milk gushed forth for the child, milk as white as snow, and when the child suckled at the one breast it flowed like a fountain from the other, ans she let it flow. There was more than enough for the child, greedy though he was, life enough for many children, and she let it flow out carelessly, conscious of her abundance. There was always more. Sometimes she lifted her breast and let it flow out upon the ground to save her clothing, and it sank into the earth and made a soft, dark, rich spot in the field. The child fat and good-natured and ate of the inexhaustible life his mother gave him.”
― Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth

“East, West, South or North makes little difference. No matter what your destination, just be sure to make every journey, a journey within. If you travel within, you’ll travel the whole wide world and beyond.”
― Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

“Now it has been said from ancient times that all women who weep may be divided into three sorts. There are those who lift up their voices and their tears flow and this may be called crying; there are those who utter loud lamentations but whose tears do not flow and this may be called howling; there are those whose tears flow but who utter no sound and this may be called weeping. Of all those women who followed Wang Lung in his coffin, his wives and his sons’ wives and his maid servants and his slaves and his hired mourners, there was only one who wept and it was Pear Blossom.”
― Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth

“If I have a handful of silver it is because I work and my wife works, and we do not, as some do, sit idling over a gambling table or gossiping on doorsteps never swept, letting the fields grow to weeds and our children go half-fed!" (Buck, 65)”
― Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth

“When I return to that house it will be with my son in my arms. I shall have a red coat on him and red-flowered trousers and on his head a hat with a small gilded Buddha sewn on the front and on his feet tiger-faced shoes. And I will wear new shoes and a new coat of black sateen and I will go into the kitchen where I spent my days and I will go into the great hall where the Old One sits with her opium, and I will show myself and my son to all of them.”
― Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth

“And out of his heaviness there stood out strangely but one clear thought and it was a pain to him, and it was this, that he wished he had not taken the two pearls from O-lan that day when she was washing his clothes at the pool, and he would never bear to see Lotus put them in her ears again.”
― Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth

“In these days it never came to Wang the Tiger's mind that his son's dreams might not be his own and he lived for the spring.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Sons

“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”
― Franz Kafka

“Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.”
― Franz Kafka

“وفي الانسان خصال بغيضة لم تستطع الحضارة تهذيبها,بل ليس لاحد يدري اخلقت معه فعجزن الحضارة عن اصلاحها ام خلق الانسان مبرأ منها ثم كسبته الحضارة اياها بما فرضا عليه من ظروف مرتبكة مشتبكة ,وبما منحته به من خطوب متسابقة متلاحقة ,ولكنها مركبة فيه علي كل حال,تفسد عليه امره,وتضطرة الي كثير من البغى,ةتةورطه في كثير من الاثم.
فلست اعرف اقسى منه اذا ابطرته النعمة,ولا اعتى منه اذا ازدهاه الغرور,ولا احهل منه اذا سيطرت عليه الاثرة,ولا اغفل منه اذا احس خطرا قريبا او بعيدا على ما يختص به نفسه من الخير”
― طه حسين , شجرة البؤس

“Today, we do not speak or write much about the face of motherhood that has been left in the shadows. Instead, we thrive on two dominant teachings: the traditional view that says motherhood is our most sacred and significant obligation and we should give up everything else for this duty; and the “modern” women’s magazine view that portrays the quintessential “superwoman” who has a career, husband and children and is able to satisfy everyone’s needs at home and at work.

As different as these two views seem to be, they have one thing in common: They both focus solely on what they want to see, disregarding the complexity and intensity of motherhood, and the way in which it transforms a woman and her crystal heart.”
― Elif Shafak, Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

“From one generation to the next some valuable information was lost along the way: that at different stages in her life a woman could need, would need, the help of her sisters, blood or not. As for my generation, we are so carried away with the propaganda that we can do anything and everything we want, our feet don’t always touch the ground. Perhaps we forget how to ask for help when we need it most.”
― Elif Shafak, Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

“Whether you have children, write books, sell pastries on the street or sign million-dollar business contracts, what matters is to be happy and fulfilled inside. Are you?”
― Elif Shafak, Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

“The grass is always greener on the other side.”
― Elif Shafak, Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

“Is that what depression is about-the sinking feeling that your connection to God is broken and you are left to float on your own in a liquid black space, like an astronaut who has been cut loose from his spaceship and all that linked him to Earth?”
― Elif Shafak, Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

“Her Majesty the Queen teaches me a deep human truth-that motherhood has a pen name: guilt.”
― Elif Shafak, Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within