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Quote by Aphra Behn

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Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn was a notable English dramatist and poet, born on July 10, 1640, and passing away on April 16, 1689. She is recognized as one of the first professional women writers in English literature, with a career that extended over two decades. Behn's writing includes plays, poems, and travelogues, and she is credited with bringing the comedy of manners to English drama. more

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“Usiingilie mambo ya mtu mwingine bila kibali kutoka kwa Mungu. Kuingilia mambo ya mtu mwingine bila kibali kutoka kwa Mungu ni dhambi. Dhambi hiyo itakuathiri. Hivyo, jali mambo yako – ya mwingine Mungu anayafanyia kazi – hadi utakapoitwa na Mungu kuingilia kati. Kuingilia kati mambo ya mtu mwingine kunaweza kuathiri mpango wa Mungu katika maisha yake. Hivyo, acha.”

“Wewe kuingilia mambo ya John ni sawa na kusema, ‘Mungu umeshindwa hebu ngoja na mimi nijaribu; ngoja niingilie kati kukusaidia juu ya maisha ya John Doe.’ Hiyo ni dhambi. Tena ni dhambi kubwa. Unajifananisha na Mungu; kwamba Mungu wa John Doe ameshindwa kwa hiyo mungu wewe ndiye utakayemtatulia matatizo yake. Amri kuu ya kwanza ya Mungu inasema, ‘Usiwe na miungu mingine ila mimi.’ Kuingilia mambo ya John tayari umevunja amri ya kwanza ya Mungu kwa kujifanya Mungu. Mungu ana mpango na maisha ya John, na anatumia matatizo yake kumfikisha kwenye takdiri aliyompangia. Hivyo, wewe si Mungu, acha Mungu afanye kazi yake. Mungu akikuruhusu kuingilia kati, yaani John akiamua kwa hiari yake mwenyewe kukuomba msaada wa mawazo au ushauri, maana yake ni kwamba Mungu amekuchagua wewe kuwa sehemu ya mafanikio ya John Doe.”

“Under Christianity neither morality nor religion has any point of contact with actuality. It offers purely imaginary causes ("God" "soul," "ego," "spirit," "free will" -- "unfree will" for that matter), and purely imaginary effects ("sin," "salvation," "grace," "punishment," "forgiveness of sins"). Intercourse between imaginary beings ("God," "spirits," "souls"); an imaginary natural science (anthropocentric; a total denial of the concept of natural causes); an imaginary psychology (misunderstandings of self, misinterpretations of agreeable or disagreeable general feelings -- for example, of the states of the nervus sympathicus with the help of the sign-language of religio-ethical balderdash -- , "repentance," "pangs of conscience," "temptation by the devil," "the presence of God"); an imaginary teleology (the "kingdom of God," "the last judgment," "eternal life"). -- This purely fictitious world, greatly to its disadvantage, is to be differentiated from the world of dreams; the later at least reflects reality, whereas the former falsifies it, cheapens it and denies it. Once the concept of "nature" had been opposed to the concept of "God," the word "natural" necessarily took on the meaning of "abominable" -- the whole of that fictitious world has its sources in hatred of the natural (-- the real! --), and is no more than evidence of a profound uneasiness in the presence of reality. . . . This explains everything. Who alone has any reason for lying his way out of reality? The man who suffers under it. But to suffer from reality one must be a botched reality. . . . The preponderance of pains over pleasures is the cause of this fictitious morality and religion: but such a preponderance also supplies the formula for decadence...”

“I lay on my side with my head on the pillows and looked out of the window; the blue of the sky was so clear it almost hurt. I felt it come again. I didn't cry much, just a few tears rolling down, wetting my eyes. I wondered about the cause. My thoughts lay embedded in sinews and skin, beyond my reach. Those of you who believe yourselves to be clean, without sin, without guilt, may cast the first stone. I saw myself under a heap of stones.”