Mariam

“When from out of error’s darkness
With a word both sure and ardent
I had drawn the fallen soul,
And you, filled with deepest torment,
Cursed the vice that had ensnared you
And so doing wrung your hands;
When, punishing with recollection
Forgetful conscience, you then told
The tale of all that went before me,
And suddenly you hid your face
In trembling hands and, filled with horror,
Filled with shame, dissolved in tears,
Indignant as you were, and shaken…
Etc., etc., etc.”
― Nikolay A. Nekrasov

“هل تخاف اليوم الآخر يا خيام؟
ولم أخاف؟ فبعد الموت إما العدم وإما الرحمة
وما ارتكبت من سوء؟
مهما تكن ذنوبك عظيمة، فعفو الله أعظم.”
― Amin Maalouf, Samarkand

“لا لم تعد ابنتي لزيارتي أبدا. وأنا لا ألومها، فلماذا تعود؟ لقد أنقذتني أصلا ونطقت بالكلمات الشافية. كنت أستعيد صوابي وأتسلق ببطء جدران هاويتي الداخلية. وأصارع! ... كانت معركة أخوضها بمفردي.”
― Amin Maalouf, Ports of Call

“It took less than an hour to make the atoms, a few hundred million years to make the stars and planets, but five billion years to make man!”
― George Gamow, The Creation of the Universe