Youssof > Youssof's Quotes

“All human plans [are] subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two

“A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid

“لا تمت قبل أن تكون ندّاً”
― غسان كنفاني

“If you are a dreamer come in
If you are a dreamer a wisher a liar
A hoper a pray-er a magic-bean-buyer
If youre a pretender com sit by my fire
For we have some flax golden tales to spin
Come in!
Come in!”
― Shel Silverstein

“أن تكون علاقتك سطحية بالجميع أمر رائع ..
فأنت بذلك تتجنب الكثير ..
تتجنب الخذلان ..

لكن ألماً ما في المساء دوماً سيباغتك
لن أحدثك عنه
جربه بنفسك !”
― مروة الإتربي

“في تعاملك مع الناس :
لا تقترب منهم للحد الذي قد يصيبك بالجنون بهم
ولا تبتعد للحد الذي قد يُشعرك بالانطواء ...

بالإضافة إلي أنهم في كل الاحوال ... سيخذلونك ... !”
― مروة الإتربي

“لا تحكِ ،، لن يشعر أحد ...”
― مروة الإتربي

“If you do the job badly enough, sometimes you don't get asked to do it again.”
― Bill Watterson, Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat

“A library is a place where you can lose your innocence without losing your virginity.”
― Germaine Greer

“The best fighter is never angry.”
― Lao Tzu

“عشبة في حطام المراكب
جمرة في صحارى الكلام
لا إله يضيء الخرائط
لا شواطئ فيها ننام
هكذا ننتهي:
وجعٌ في ثنايا الرخام
مسّنا هاجس الغائبين
فارتكبنا السفر
نحن لسنا أنيناً
أو بقايا شجر
نحن هذا الزحام
في سماء البشر
خالطتنا الوحوش
والطيور الرقيقة
نحن بدء الذهول
وجنون الحقيقة
عشبة
في حطام المراكب
جمرة
في صحارى الكلام
هكذا ننتهي:
وجع
في ثنايا
الرخام”
― سليم بركات

“12% of employees eat because they are hungry. 88% of employees eat because it is 1 o’clock.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Faustus: Stay, Mephistopheles, and tell me, what good will
my soul do thy lord?

Mephistopheles: Enlarge his kingdom.

Faustus: Is that the reason he tempts us thus?

Mephistopheles: Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.
(It is a comfort to the wretched to have companions in misery.)”
― Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus

“We take off into the cosmos, ready for anything: for solitude, for hardship, for exhaustion, death. Modesty forbids us to say so, but there are times when we think pretty well of ourselves. And yet, if we examine it more closely, our enthusiasm turns out to be all sham. We don't want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want to extend the boundaries of Earth to the frontiers of the cosmos....

We are humanitarian and chivalrous; we don't want to enslave other races, we simply want to bequeath them our values and take over their heritage in exchange. We think of ourselves as the Knights of the Holy Contact. This is another lie. We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. (1970 English translation)”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

“Class is an aura of confidence that is being sure without being cocky. Class has nothing to do with money. Class never runs scared. It is self-discipline and self-knowledge. It's the sure-footedness that comes with having proved you can meet life. ”
― Ann Landers

“‎Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.”
― Henry Ward Beecher

“Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end.”
― Christina Rossetti

“Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.”
― René Descartes

“كأن الأرواح لا عمر لها..كأنها حين تتفق لا يعنيها ما يكون بين أصحابها من اختلاف في السن”
― محمد كامل حسين, قرية ظالمة

“الإنسان بدون الله هزأة لا معنى لعمله ولا قيمة للدوافع التي تصدر عنها أعماله,فإن ما يميز الإنسان عن الحيوان هو الضمير,والضمير من الله وبدون الله لا يكون ابن آدم إلا حيوانا عاقلا ذكيا,أما أن يكون بدون الله إنسانا فذلك من المحال”
― محمد كامل حسين, قرية ظالمة

“ما يصيب المسلم من نصب ولا وصب ولا همّ ولا حزن ولا أذى ولا غمّ - حتى الشوكة يشاكها - إلا كفّر الله بها مِن خطاياه
No fatigue, disease, sorrow, sadness, hurt or distress befalls a Muslim - not even the prick he receives from a thorn - except that Allah expiates some of his sins because of it. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 70, #545)”
― Anonymous

“The devil's happy when the critics run you off.”
― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

“What you perceive as a failure today may actually be a crucial step towards the success you seek. Never give up.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year

“Like the most of you, I was raised among people who knew - who were certain. They did not reason or investigate. They had no doubts. They knew that they had the truth. In their creed there was no guess — no perhaps. They had a revelation from God. They knew the beginning of things. They knew that God commenced to create one Monday morning, four thousand and four years before Christ. They knew that in the eternity — back of that morning, he had done nothing. They knew that it took him six days to make the earth — all plants, all animals, all life, and all the globes that wheel in space. They knew exactly what he did each day and when he rested. They knew the origin, the cause of evil, of all crime, of all disease and death.

At the same time they knew that God created man in his own image and was perfectly satisfied with his work... They knew all about the Flood -- knew that God, with the exception of eight, drowned all his children -- the old and young -- the bowed patriarch and the dimpled babe -- the young man and the merry maiden -- the loving mother and the laughing child -- because his mercy endureth forever. They knew too, that he drowned the beasts and birds -- everything that walked or crawled or flew -- because his loving kindness is over all his works. They knew that God, for the purpose of civilizing his children, had devoured some with earthquakes, destroyed some with storms of fire, killed some with his lightnings, millions with famine, with pestilence, and sacrificed countless thousands upon the fields of war. They knew that it was necessary to believe these things and to love God. They knew that there could be no salvation except by faith, and through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.

Then I asked myself the question: Is there a supernatural power -- an arbitrary mind -- an enthroned God -- a supreme will that sways the tides and currents of the world -- to which all causes bow?

I do not deny. I do not know - but I do not believe. I believe that the natural is supreme - that from the infinite chain no link can be lost or broken — that there is no supernatural power that can answer prayer - no power that worship can persuade or change — no power that cares for man.

Is there a God?

I do not know.

Is man immortal?

I do not know.

One thing I do know, and that is, that neither hope, nor fear, belief, nor denial, can change the fact. It is as it is, and it will be as it must be.

We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know. We can tell the truth, and we can enjoy the blessed freedom that the brave have won. We can destroy the monsters of superstition, the hissing snakes of ignorance and fear. We can drive from our minds the frightful things that tear and wound with beak and fang. We can civilize our fellow-men. We can fill our lives with generous deeds, with loving words, with art and song, and all the ecstasies of love. We can flood our years with sunshine — with the divine climate of kindness, and we can drain to the last drop the golden cup of joy.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol 1: Lectures

“She is so lovely she could kill you without you even noticing it. A monster girl who knows when to kiss and when to kill.”
― Cameron Jace, Snow White Sorrow

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
― Marcus Aurelius , Meditations

“My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.”
― Nikola Tesla

“Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.”
― Nikola Tesla

“I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men.”
― Nikola Tesla

“a telephone subscriber here may call up and talk to any other subscriber on the Globe. An inexpensive receiver, not bigger than a watch, will enable him to listen anywhere, on land or sea, to a speech delivered or music played in some other place, however distant.”
― Nikola Tesla, My Inventions