Illuminated Corners Quotes

“First steps are always the hardest but until they are taken the notion of progress remains only a notion and not an achievement.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“The job facing American voters… in the days and years to come is to determine which hearts, minds and souls command those qualities best suited to unify a country rather than further divide it, to heal the wounds of a nation as opposed to aggravate its injuries, and to secure for the next generation a legacy of choices based on informed awareness rather than one of reactions based on unknowing fear.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“It becomes more and more difficult to avoid the idea of black men as subjects of not just racial profiling but of an insidious form of racial obliteration sanctioned by silence.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream was a manifestation of hope that humanity might one day get out of its own way by finding the courage to realize that love and nonviolence are not indicators of weakness but gifts of significant strength.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“The word 'survivor' carries a weight of remembrance that has broken the minds and bodies of more than a few men and women. It also contains a humbling light of recognition that compels many to do whatever they can to help reinforce the efforts of those who might be 'at risk' of not just giving up on their dreams, but of giving up on their continued existence.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“Poetry looking in the mirror sees art,
and art looking in a mirror sings poetry.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“It [freedom] rings bells to remind humanity that the most precious gifts in life––like children and love and time––must never be taken for granted.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“Millions of tears have fallen for black sons, brothers, lovers, and friends whose assailants took or maimed their lives and then simply went on their way.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“Within the universe of the extraordinary, those qualities we designate to human concepts of gender are often shared, exchanged, or even completely obliterated. Because of this mixture of traits, these twins called Genius and Madness often appear to be the same thing. They both have a tendency to blur the lines of what we call norms, or established reality. They both, when we study that grand tapestry known as history and modern-day society, tend to stand out in much bolder relief than other figures.
-- from Dancing with Madness, Dancing with Genius”
― Author-Poet Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“At the different stages of recognition, reflection, and redress, practicing compassion provides potentially world-saving opportunities which otherwise likely would not exist.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“In its essence, Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech is one citizen’s soul-searing plea with his countrymen––Whites and Blacks––to recognize that racial disparities fueled by unwarranted bigotry were crippling America’s ability to shine as a true beacon of democracy in a world filled with people groping their way through suffocating shadows of political turmoil, economic oppression, military mayhem, starvation, and disease.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“We have the option to either empower our existence with love, purpose, and beauty, or allow ourselves to become slaves to ignorance and agony.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“Many Americans first fell in love with the poetry of the thirteenth century teacher and spiritual leader Jelalludin Rumi during the early 1990s when the unparalleled lyrical grace, philosophical brilliance, and spiritual daring of his work took modern Western readers completely by surprise. The impact of its soulful beauty and the depth of its profound humanity were so intense that they reportedly prompted numerous individuals to spontaneously compose poetry.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“Trayvon Martin, at the most, seems only to have been guilty of being himself.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“The ecstatic beauty and soulful grace of Rumi’s poetry inspires human hearts to believe in possibilities beyond the predictably fatal.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“Freedom rings bells to wake us from the comfort of beautiful dreams and empower the efforts that turn them into reality.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“The issue, perhaps, boils down to one of how perceptions or misperceptions of racial difference impact various individuals’, or groups of individuals’, experience of freedom in America. Some would argue that it goes beyond hampering their 'pursuit of happiness' to outright obliterating it.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“Some have speculated that the way [Albert] Camus died made his theories on absurdity a self-fulfilling prophecy. Others would say it was the triumphant meaningful way he lived that allowed him to rise heroically above absurdity.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“There is in Albert Camus’ literary craftsmanship a seductive intelligence that could almost make a reader dismiss his philosophical intentions if he had not insisted on making them so clear.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.

“The instinct to tell our children that they are better than someone else’s children, based on nothing more than the color of their skin, is now a fossilized aberration that serves no useful purpose.”
― Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.