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Quote by Christine de Pizan

Work

The Book of the City of Ladies

This book is a seminal work in the history of feminist thought, presenting an allegorical city as a utopia for women. It was written by Christine de Pizan during the late Middle Ages and is considered a foundational text in the development of women's rights and gender studies. more

Author

Christine de Pizan
Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan was a renowned French author, considered one of the most outstanding female writers of the Middle Ages. Born in 1364 and died in 1430, her works covered various fields, including philosophy, history, and literature. more

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“If Beirut was the supermarket of the left in the 1970s, where Marxists, communists, Egyptians, Iraqis, and all the Palestinian factions debated and theorized, published and drank in bars arguing over ideas and the fought in the streets, Peshawar was the supermarket of the Islamists in the 1980s without drinking: there the discussions were about Islamic law, fatwas, the war of the believers, the unity of the Muslim nation, and the humanitarian needs of Afghan refugees.”

“FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, ROEI DAT ONKRUID VAN HET KALIFAAT NU EINDELIJK EENS UIT, STUUR JE TROEPEN, INCLUSIEF JE VREEMDELINGENLEGIOEN NAAR AR-RAQQAH EN DOE WAT VREDESDUIF OBAMA NALAAT TE DOEN, KUIS ER DE AUGIASSTALLEN OP DIE DE AMERIKANEN ER NALIETEN. EN DOE HET NIET MET VLIEGMACHIENTJES MAAR MET GRONDTROEPEN, VERDOMME!”

“In the room, the clocks tick, unseen. It has been a day of shadows and redirection, revelation and lies. Diane gets the vague sense that Kotey — with his confi dence and his silence — might think himself to be the smartest person in the room. He is intelligent yes, but it’s an intelligence that needs to wear a disguise. And besides, the smartest person in the room is the one who knows she, or he, is never the smartest at all: herein lies the contradiction. She wonders now if he has just said exactly the things she wanted to hear? She knows herself to be naïve at times: she admits this to herself. Yes, it is true, she has often been far too open to people in the past. She has been stung. Government offi cials who have deceived her. Pretenders from the FBI. Misdirection from the State Department and White House. Politicians. Negotiators. Informers. Conmen. And, perhaps now, Kotey. But she also knows that the naivety is necessary to cultivate something deeper. She wants to remain open to the world. Compassion, Lord. And mercy. And patience. There will be one more session tomorrow. Perhaps they will achieve something more than this intimate stand-off . But then again, perhaps nothing. She pulls back her chair and thanks him. It is dangerous, she knows, to thank him, her son’s murderer. But she must do it anyway. Perhaps it’s only politeness. Perhaps it’s something more. “In another life,” she says, “you and Jim might have been friends.”

“...the fanatics who slaughter the innocent and defenseless, pillaging villages, enslaving women and children, believe themselves to be holy. With every sorrow and suffering they rain on other humans, they expect to earn favor in the eyes of God, move closer to completing the bridge from this world to their exclusive paradise. How can anyone assume they will please the Creator by hurting His Creation?”

“It just so happened we lived near a hotbed of jihadis. Jay's friend Azzedine lived in that neighborhood, and just about two hundred yards from his family's place was a nondescript house located at 117 Dambruggestraat. It was the headquarters of a group called Sharia4Belgium. They were radical Salafists, the most extreme branch of Islam. The organization's members demanded that Belgium become an Islamic state, ruled by sharia law. The prime minister would be replaced by a caliph, the parliament would become a shura council, and all non-Muslims would be forced either to leave the country or to pay the jizya, a tax on all unbelievers. What an outrageous idea! Only 6 percent of the country's people were Muslim, ...”