Muhammad

“it is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.”
― Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

“و متى كانت هذة الحياة موطنا للسعادة أو مستقرا لها ؟ و متى سعد ابناؤها فنسعد مثلهم كما سعدوا ؟ و إن كان لابد من سعادة فى هذه الحياة فسعادتها ان يعيش المرء فيها معتقدا أن لا سعادة فيها ليستطيع أن يقضى ايامه المقدرة له على ظهرها هادئ القلب ساكن النفس لا يكدر عليه عيشه أمل كاذب و لا رجاء خائب”
― مصطفى لطفي المنفلوطي, العبرات

“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

“When reason fails, the devil helps!”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment