Zokhlo > Zokhlo's Quotes

“When love beckons to you follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth......

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor, Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love. And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself."

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully.”
― Kahlil Gibran, Le Prophète

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“To belittle, you have to be little.”
― Kahill Gibran, The Prophet

“He thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister's. He remained in this state of empty and peaceful reflection until the tower clock struck three in the morning. He still saw that outside the window everything was beginning to grow light. Then, without his consent, his head sank down to the floor, and from his nostrils streamed his last weak breath.”
― Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis

“However, Gregor had become much calmer. All right, people did not understand his words any more, although they seemed clear enough to him, clearer than previously, perhaps because had gotten used to them”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“إننا نحتاج إلى تلك الكتب التي تنزل علينا كالصاعقة التي تؤلمنا، كموت من نحبه أكثر مما نحب أنفسنا، التي تجعلنا نشعر وكأننا قد طردنا إلى الغابات بعيدًا عن الناس " .
كافكا كان يكتب ليعري الإنسانية ، لتتجلي في أبشع صورها الحقيقة .”
― فرانز كافكا , The Metamorphosis

“His growing lack of concern for the others hardly surprised him, whereas previously he had prided himself on being considerate.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“فإن فكرة من الأفكارلا يمكن أن تنقرض مهما كانت متطفلة ,ما دامت قد وجدت ذات مرة، أو أنها لا يمكنها على الأقل أن تنقرض دون صراع رهيب، ودون أن تتمكن من تحقيق لنفسها دفاعا فعلا ينجح في أن يثبت طويلا.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart: “Your seeds shall live in my body, And the buds of your to-morrow shall blossom in my heart, And your fragrance shall be my breath, And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.”
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Macmillan Collector's Library) by Kahlil Gibran

“But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee. For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life, And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love, And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.”
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

“And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.”
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Macmillan Collector's Library) by Kahlil Gibran

“We are all the products and victims of our own upbringing, until we reflect, refuse, and rebel.”
― Rawi Hage, Carnival

“Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces – and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper – love her, love her, love her!”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all; I love her none the less because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“I looked at the stars, and considered how awful it would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he froze to death, and see no help or pity in all the glittering multitude.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“Morning made a considerable difference in my general prospects of Life and brightened it so much that is scarcely seemed the same.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“Biddy was never insulting, or capricious, or Biddy to-day and somebody else to-morrow; she would have derived only pain, and no pleasure, from giving me pain; she would far rather have wounded her own breast than mine. How could it be, then, that I did not like her much the better of the two?”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“Among cats, when a female chooses a mate, it’s a very clear-cut thing. Not just among cats, but with all animals, the female’s judgement about love is absolute.”
― Hiro Arikawa, The Travelling Cat Chronicles

“Did you know that for pretty much the entire history of the human species, the average life span was less than thirty years? You could count on ten years or so of real adulthood, right? There was no planning for retirement, There was no planning for a career. There was no planning. No time for plannning. No time for a future. But then the life spans started getting longer, and people started having more and more future. And now life has become the future. Every moment of your life is lived for the future--you go to high school so you can go to college so you can get a good job so you can get a nice house so you can afford to send your kids to college so they can get a good job so they can get a nice house so they can afford to send their kids to college.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“Here's what's not beautiful about it: from here, you can't see the rust or the cracked paint or whatever, but you can tell what the place really is. You can see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a paper town. I mean, look at it, Q: look at all those culs-de-sac, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people, too. I've lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“YOU WILL GO TO THE PAPER TOWNS
AND YOU WILL NEVER COME BACK”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“I've lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“At least I carpe'd that one diem.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“Life has become the future. Every moment of your life is lived for the future.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“The house was very quiet, and the fog—we are in November now—pressed against the windows like an excluded ghost.”
― E.M. Forster, Howards End

“Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard."

[Give me the splendid silent sun]”
― Walt Whitman, The Complete Poems

“There are many Beths in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on the hearth stops chirping, and the sweet, sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadow behind.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women