The Ardent Swarm Quotes

“The equation was so simple that its simplicity rendered it unreal and almost unfathomable. No more bees: no more pollination. No more pollination: no more harvests. No more harvests: hello, famine.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“Within the dream of prosperity and tolerance, nothing remained of fragile democracy but the illusory right to talk shit.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“Seeing them communicate the best flower patches and thickets was like watching a ballet. They fluttered, grazed, and quivered in a delicate choreography. The dance of life, Sidi had named it, because life advanced thanks to these workers, providing man and animal fruits, nuts, and vegetables, and all the while, offering Sidi divine honey.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“Though a worker bee will make an entire spoonful of honey in her lifetime, she will produce no more than a bead of royal jelly, and that only when necessary.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“Aya—“miracle” in Arabic, “wild beauty” in Japanese.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“He had carefully placed stickers with prayers and invocations on the back windshield: We will reach our destination if God wills it, Our lives are in your hands, my Lord, and other declarations that preemptively exonerated him from all responsibility in the event of an accident, and even granted him road privileges.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“What was easier to hijack than democracy? Like most things in the world of men, democracy was principally a question of money, and the prince had plenty.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“After the revolution, the time had come for democracy and journalism, but what came was an endless media debate in which politicians blamed one another for all that ailed the country.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“Most of them hadn’t even chosen their spouses, and now they were meant to choose who would govern them.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“A God that could still console him for the cruelty of man through the gentleness of his bees.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“Now they’re telling us how to talk and dress, but soon they’ll tell us how to think. What will be on the agenda for tomorrow?”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“The villagers were completely discombobulated. Most of them hadn’t even chosen their spouses, and now they were meant to choose who would govern them.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“They said that life will be easier if we choose the right people.” “And how do we know who are the right people?” Toumi looked at the pamphlets in his hands. There were faces, symbols, and writing. These were cards he didn’t know how to interpret.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“And the children of Nawa even said that anyone who saw a bee painted in more than five colors would have their wish granted.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“the time had come for democracy and journalism, but what came was an endless media debate in which politicians blamed one another for all that ailed the country.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“This species is as old as the world. What’s new is seeing it in Nawa.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“She felt like they were worshipping a God of hate and punishment, while hers was one of love and mercy.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“On the way back, light and happy as a sparrow, Sidi whispered his gratitude to the star-filled sky.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“When hens have teeth.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“What you lose in strength, you gain in clear-sightedness. The trick is to reach the age of wisdom while you’re still strong enough to do things.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“And thy Lord taught the Bee to build its cells in hills on trees, and in [men’s] habitations; Then to eat of all the produce [of the earth], and find with skill the spacious Paths of its Lord: there issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colours, wherein is healing for men: verily in this is a Sign for those who give thought Quran, “The Bee,” 16:68–69”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“Once again, man, in search of land, gave the plague to his fellow man in the folds of his offerings.”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“What was easier to hijack than democracy?”
― Yamen Manai, The Ardent Swarm

“Les autres. Encore. Souvent l'enfer, parfois le salut.”
― Yamen Manai, L'amas ardent