Basma > Basma's Quotes

“You cannot say to the sun, 'More sun,' or to the rain, 'Less rain.' To a man, geisha can only be half a wife. We are the wives of nightfall. And yet, to learn kindness after so much unkindness, to understand that a little girl with more courage than she knew, would find her prayers were answered, can that not be called happiness? After all these are not the memoirs of an empress, nor of a queen. These are memoirs of another kind.”
― Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

“Mortality is a cause for humility, she said to me. None of us knows when he might be taken, as your blessed father was taken. Death, like birth, comes to us all, regardless of rank or station in life.”
― Sena Jeter Naslund, Abundance

“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.”
― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

“You can never love the same way twice”
― Hisaya Nakajo

“Good books don't give up all their secrets at once.”
― Stephen King

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“A woman is human.

She is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative, or more responsible than a man.

Likewise, she is never less.

Equality is a given.

A woman is human.”
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains.”
― Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

“This is why dreams can be such dangerous things: they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes they consume us completely.”
― Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

“Do you have to find the evil in yourself in order to truly recognize it in the world?”
― Piper Kerman, Orange Is the New Black

“The love of power and the power to attract love were not easy to reconcile.”
― Robert K Massie, Catherine The Great

“When a woman says, ‘I have nothing to wear!’, what she really means is, ‘There’s nothing here for who I’m supposed to be today.”
― Caitlin Moran, How to Be a Woman

“But as the years went on, I realised that what I really want to be, all told, is a human. Just a productive, honest, courteously treated human.”
― Caitlin Moran, How to Be a Woman

“We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course.”
― Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

“Water is powerful. It can wash away earth, put out fire, and even destroy iron.”
― Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

“It lies in humanity's infinite capacity for self-deception where some perceived (and in this case long-desired) advantage is at stake”
― Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette: The Journey

“Feed your mind. Cultivate impressions and opinions. Know what you think.”
― Debra Ollivier, Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl

“Consider your life your personal currency-and invest it wisely.”
― Debra Ollivier, Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl

“Knowing yourself is life's eternal homework”
― Felicia Day, You're Never Weird on the Internet