Beirut Hellfire Society Quotes

“Do you know what fascinated him about Christianity? The elaborate rituals of sacrifice and the symbolic re-enactments of violence.”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“But Nadja sensed his intention and said, It was just a game. You take captivity too seriously. If anything, surrender will liberate you from the burden of yourself.”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“I would argue that our libertine ways are better suited than any religion to protect man’s core against the devastating and tragic reality of life.”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“We worship fire because it is the closest sensation to what a man feels when love exists. Fire is a passage and a dance, but its destruction brings renewal.”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“There is no dignity for the dead. There are only ceremonies for the living”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“It’s all just a dance, Pavlov thought. And nothing is more devastating than a dance”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“He saw that women, in gathering close to death, were in these times of mourning the producers of a most unique symphony, a collective weeping that had evolved into one of mankind's most sophisticated chants.”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“There is no God, there are only humans who imagine the possibility of gods.”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“And no one was left to walk behind that coffin but three old women who quietly, timidly, beneath the black veils covering their transitory old faces, mourned the end of a lineage and the inevitability of extinction.”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“Death makes one forgive and love again. We humans only value our losses and regrets.”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“We no longer belong here, we are mutants, and our only choice is to become even more mutant so that we eventually leave and disappear from this region. We are nothing now but the residue of a defeated, conquered past and we are stubbornly holding on to old creeds, a few archaic rituals and the facade of western modernity.”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“We only kill each other to see ourselves as heroes in our fathers’ stories.”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“The note of a trumpet sounded, and Pavlov went to the window. The girl stood beside him. She said, The dead are coming. The dead are coming, Pavlov repeated. But where do they go? To Hades, Pavlov said. Who is there in Hades? Pluto, Pavlov said. Is he nice? He likes to live in the underworld, Pavlov said. And where is God? Rima asked. There is no God, there are only humans who imagine the possibility of gods. When the music started, Pavlov went to the middle of the room and moved his feet. The dog joined him. He extended his arms to his little niece, and all three of them danced to the tune of the dead.”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society

“Suicide, the dog continued, is the most heroic act, which no animal save for man dares to commit or could ever contemplate.”
― Rawi Hage, Beirut Hellfire Society