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Quote by Mahmoud Darwish

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Unfortunately, it was Paradise: Selected Poems

This book is a compilation of poems that delve into the complexities of human emotions, particularly focusing on the experiences of loss and the yearning for a paradise lost. The poems are thought-provoking and deeply emotional, offering readers a glimpse into the author's introspective world. more

Author

Mahmoud Darwish
Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish was a renowned Lebanese poet known for his profound poetry and strong nationalist sentiments. His works extensively explored the sufferings and hopes of the Palestinian people, profoundly influencing Middle Eastern literature. more

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“In an Artist’s Studio One face looks out from all his canvases, One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans: We found her hidden just behind those screens, That mirror gave back all her loveliness. A queen in opal or in ruby dress, A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens, A saint, an angel - every canvas means The same one meaning, neither more nor less. He feeds upon her face by day and night, And she with true kind eyes looks back on him, Fair as the moon and joyful as the light: Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim; Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright; Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.”

“If you hold a gun and I hold a gun, we can talk about the law. If you hold a knife and I hold a knife, we can talk about rules. If you come empty handed and I come empty handed, we can talk about reason. But if you have a gun and I only have a knife, then the truth lies in your hands. If you have a gun and I have nothing, what you hold isn't just a weapon, it's my life. The concepts of laws, rules and morality only hold meaning when they are based on equality. The harsh truth of this world is that when money speaks, truth goes silent. And when power speaks, even money takes three steps back. Those who create the rules are often the first to break them. Rules are chains for the weak, tools for the strong. In this world, anything good must be fought for. The masters of the game are fiercely competing for resources while only the weak sit idly, waiting to be given a share.”

“I do not see how it is possible for a man to die worth fifty million of dollars, or ten million of dollars, in a city full of want, when he meets almost every day the withered hand of beggary and the white lips of famine. How a man can withstand all that, and hold in the clutch of his greed twenty or thirty million of dollars, is past my comprehension. I do not see how he can do it. I should not think he could do it any more than he could keep a pile of lumber on the beach, where hundreds and thousands of men were drowning in the sea.”

“Money is just one of the forces that blind us to information and issues which we could pay attention to - but don't. It exacerbates and often rewards all the other drivers of willful blindness; our preference for the familiar, our love for individuals and for big ideas, a love of busyness and our dislike of conflict and change, the human instinct to obey and conform and our skill at displacing and diffusing responsibility. All of these operate and collaborate with varying intensities at different moments in our lives. The common denominator is that they all make us protect our sense of self-worth, reducing dissonance and conferring a sense of security, however illusory. In some ways, they all act like money; making us feel good at first, with consequences we don't see. We wouldn't be so blind if our blindness didn't deliver rewards; the benefit of comfort and ease.”