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Lebanon Quotes

Browse 150 quotes about Lebanon.

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Lebanon Quotes

“Grief is shameless; it refuses to be ignored. If you let it have its way, it becomes fatal. If you try to remove it piece by piece, it only multiplies like a tumor. And if you try to fight it, it becomes like quicksand; you try to claw your way back to the surface, and for a second you feel the fresh air against your face, thinking you've survived, only to be pulled fiercely back down again, swallowed whole, nothing left.”

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Book:Crossing
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“I don't think I ever fully understood before now the old saying that goes: "A mother's heart loves her young one until he grows; her ill one until he heals; and her traveler until he returns." I have experienced all kinds of waiting; I've waited for my young to grow and the sick to heal, but I am still waiting on my little traveler and I do not know how long it will be until I see him again.”

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Book:Crossing
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“My lesson on which blooms to pick and how to do so to preserve their scent is followed by lunch on the stone terrace. We eat flatbreads, warm and patchily charred from the griddle, folded over crumbled white cheese, tearing them apart and dipping the smoky bread and salty cheese into bowls of rose-scented jam.”

RosesLebanonBread And Cheese
Book:A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts
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“Direktör Benschop is a semi-double milky-white rose with egg-yolk-yellow stamens bred by German breeder Mateus Tantau in 1939, though not commercially available till after the war. The garden is also home to Alchymist, the crumpled honey, white and gold climber. I have always struggled with the notion of stripping a rose for its petals, though I do occasionally bring one into the kitchen in June, scattering them over an oval platter of raspberries, a sponge cake dusted with icing sugar or, most memorably, a vast fig meringue the size of a hat at a June wedding.”

DessertRosesLebanonRose PetalsVarietiesGarnishes
Book:A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts
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“1. Bangladesh.... In 1971 ... Kissinger overrode all advice in order to support the Pakistani generals in both their civilian massacre policy in East Bengal and their armed attack on India from West Pakistan.... This led to a moral and political catastrophe the effects of which are still sorely felt. Kissinger’s undisclosed reason for the ‘tilt’ was the supposed but never materialised ‘brokerage’ offered by the dictator Yahya Khan in the course of secret diplomacy between Nixon and China.... Of the new state of Bangladesh, Kissinger remarked coldly that it was ‘a basket case’ before turning his unsolicited expertise elsewhere. 2. Chile.... Kissinger had direct personal knowledge of the CIA’s plan to kidnap and murder General René Schneider, the head of the Chilean Armed Forces ... who refused to countenance military intervention in politics. In his hatred for the Allende Government, Kissinger even outdid Richard Helms ... who warned him that a coup in such a stable democracy would be hard to procure. The murder of Schneider nonetheless went ahead, at Kissinger’s urging and with American financing, just between Allende’s election and his confirmation.... This was one of the relatively few times that Mr Kissinger (his success in getting people to call him ‘Doctor’ is greater than that of most PhDs) involved himself in the assassination of a single named individual rather than the slaughter of anonymous thousands. His jocular remark on this occasion—‘I don’t see why we have to let a country go Marxist just because its people are irresponsible’—suggests he may have been having the best of times.... 3. Cyprus.... Kissinger approved of the preparations by Greek Cypriot fascists for the murder of President Makarios, and sanctioned the coup which tried to extend the rule of the Athens junta (a favoured client of his) to the island. When despite great waste of life this coup failed in its objective, which was also Kissinger’s, of enforced partition, Kissinger promiscuously switched sides to support an even bloodier intervention by Turkey. Thomas Boyatt ... went to Kissinger in advance of the anti-Makarios putsch and warned him that it could lead to a civil war. ‘Spare me the civics lecture,’ replied Kissinger, who as you can readily see had an aphorism for all occasions. 4. Kurdistan. Having endorsed the covert policy of supporting a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq between 1974 and 1975, with ‘deniable’ assistance also provided by Israel and the Shah of Iran, Kissinger made it plain to his subordinates that the Kurds were not to be allowed to win, but were to be employed for their nuisance value alone. They were not to be told that this was the case, but soon found out when the Shah and Saddam Hussein composed their differences, and American aid to Kurdistan was cut off. Hardened CIA hands went to Kissinger ... for an aid programme for the many thousands of Kurdish refugees who were thus abruptly created.... The apercu of the day was: ‘foreign policy should not he confused with missionary work.’ Saddam Hussein heartily concurred. 5. East Timor. The day after Kissinger left Djakarta in 1975, the Armed Forces of Indonesia employed American weapons to invade and subjugate the independent former Portuguese colony of East Timor. Isaacson gives a figure of 100,000 deaths resulting from the occupation, or one-seventh of the population, and there are good judges who put this estimate on the low side. Kissinger was furious when news of his own collusion was leaked, because as well as breaking international law the Indonesians were also violating an agreement with the United States.... Monroe Leigh ... pointed out this awkward latter fact. Kissinger snapped: ‘The Israelis when they go into Lebanon—when was the last time we protested that?’ A good question, even if it did not and does not lie especially well in his mouth. It goes on and on and on until one cannot eat enough to vomit enough.”

WarPoliticsUnited StatesDemocracyMoralityDoctorsIndiaMurderIraqIsraelChinaCivil WarIranFascismForeign PolicyPakistanDiplomacyGreeceMarxismIndonesiaSlaughterAssassinationRefugeesInternational LawLebanonAthensChileBangladeshWar CrimesPartitionTurkeyHenry KissingerCyprusRichard NixonMissionariesCoup D éTatKurdistanJakartaSaddam Hussein19741975Foreign Policy Of The UsCentral Intelligence AgencyKurdish People1971ShahIran Iraq WarIraqi KurdistanWalter IsaacsonJuntaSalvador AllendeYahya KhanBangladesh Liberation WarChina Pakistan RelationsIndo Pakistani War Of 1971Mohammad Reza PahlaviNews LeaksPakistan United States Relations1971 Bangladesh Atrocities1972 Nixon Visit To China1973 Chilean Coup D EtatDoctors Of PhilosophyEast TimorEcclesiastical CoupGreek CypriotsIndonesian National Armed ForcesIsraeli Lebanese ConflictKurdish Iraqi ConflictMakarios IiiMilitary Of ChileMonroe LeighPortugualPortuguese EmpireRene SchneiderSchneider DoctrineSecond Kurdish Iraqi WarSino American RelationsThomas D BoyattTurkish Invasion Of Cyprus
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“I find a piece of wood that looks like a gun and help Amir find one, too. "My brother has a real gun," he says. We run, we hide, we pretend to shoot, we pretend to die. I see my mother at a stall buying flowers, and she frowns at me. She does not like for me to play this game.”

ChildrenWarGamesGunsLebanonPlayingPlaying War
Book:Sami and the Time of the Troubles: A Moving Story About a Lebanese Boy in a War-Torn City for Kids
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“فكَّرتُ أنني أستطيع أن أخلق مشهداً ملحميّاً ابتداءً من جورب معلّق على حبل غسيل. لا سحرة ولا غجر ولا بطريرك ولا جنرالات ولا شيء، ولا حتى مدينة متخيَّلة أو قرن يمر على العائلة الموصوفة. لا شيء من كل هذا. فقط جوارب، والأرجح أنها مخططة و.. مبللة.”

NovelLebanon
Book:ما رواه النوم
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“سألاحظ الأشخاص أسفل نافذتي الموجودة على يميني. البائع الذي يصبِّح على جاره علانيةً ويهمس شاتماً لما يدخل إلى محله. نسب التنزيلات الملصقة على واجهة محلات الألبسة وهي تكثر وتقل، تكبر وتصغر. زمير أبواق السيارات وزحمة الشارع. النزلاء في الفندق المقابل وهم يغلقون ستائر غرفهم. أسراب الحمام في سماء الشارع الضيق، تمر سويةً وترحل معاً بإشارة من رجل على سطح بناء قريب. تلك الجارة التي لا تنتبه إلى الستارة المفتوحة إلا بعد أن تخلع بنطالها، ويبين لباسها الداخلي. طاولة الطعام التي يتجمع عليها أفراد عائلة من ذووي الملامح الصامتة. الولد الشقي الذي يدخل رأسه في فتحة الدرابزين الحديدي وينادي لأخته كي تساعده في إخراج رأسه الذي علق. عادةً ما يستغرق الأمر خمس دقائق قبل أن تدخل الفتاة لتخبر أمها وتأتي الأم مستشيطة غضباً. سأشاهد الخادمة، سريلنكية الجنسية، وهي تتواصل مع صديقتها السريلنكية في البناية المقابلة. الكلمات في لغتهما الهجينة تمر في الفضاء بين البنايتين. سأتابع "سيدتها" وهي تخرج مجابهةً إياها بشتائم من العيار الثقيل، لأنها "تقلل من مستواها".”

NovelLebanon
Book:ما رواه النوم
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“أعرف مثلاً أنني -يوماً ما- سأقضي حياتي متنقلاً بين شقة وأخرى في المناطق التي لم أعش فيها يوماً في هذا البلد وتبدو لي غريبة. برج حمود مثلاً. المجتمع الأرمني يجذبني. ربما لأنني لا أعرف عنه كثيراً. يجنح بي الخيال لأرى نفسي في حضرة عجوز أرمنية في كرسي هزاز فيما أنا تحت قدميها، أجلس القرفصاء وأستمع لحكاياتها التي لا تنتهي عن بطل أرمني ما ذبحه الأتراك. وستخبرني العجوز الأرمنية عن الرمّان وهي تقدم لي بعض حبوبه. تقول لي أن كوز الرمان يحوي 365 حبة. تقول لي أن الرمان أنقذ العائلات الأرمنية من الموت المحتم في زمن الأتراك. في الكهوف جلسوا. كلٌّ بيده رمانة. حبة واحدة كل يوم. حبة تبعد الموت لعام كامل. هل هذا صحيح؟ الأرجح لا. لكنّ قصة الرمانة تبقى، شأنها شأن كل القصص، شأنها كل المشاهد التي رأيتها والتي لستُ حتى واثقاً من حدوثها فعلياً.”

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Book:ما رواه النوم
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“ابيضّ شعر يوسف في عمر السابعة حين شاهد الثلج يهدم حجرة أخيه الأكبر، فيسقط السقف عليه وزوجته وتوأميه، الأجساد الأربعة يراها يوسف بعد ذلك ممدة على السرير الحديد في القبو. وتظلّ تزوره في أحلامه حتى عمرٍ متقدّمة. كان يقضي يومه متأملاً ويفكّر إمّا مُعلّقًا على غصن التينة ومأرجحًا أحد ساقيه، أو تحت ظلّ شجرة التوت بجوار قبر أمّه سارة.تعلّم يوسف إبراهيم خاطر جابر الكتابة، أراد أن يشغله والده عن ساعات التفكير الطويلة. “تعلّم يوسف كيف يكتب اسمه، تعلّم كيف يكتب الأرقام، تعلّم كيف يكتب “الله جلّ جلاله” تعلّم كيف يكتب إبراهيم بالألف الطويلة كشجرة في الوسط، تعلّم كيف يكتب سارة بالراء التي تكرج كالمياه من “هارب قناة المير” وبالتاء المربوطة التي نلفظها كالألف بعد راء إبراهيم، تعلّم كيف يكتب نور الدين، وأحسّ حين كتب اسم أخيه الصغير أنه يسمع صوت بكاءه خارجًا من الحروف”. كان يمرر يده على الحروف بعد أن يكتبها فيشعر أنها تتنفس تحت أصابعه.”

LoveArtNostalgiaEnglishLebanonArabicArabJoseph
Book:يوسف الإنجليزي
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“The fruits scorch in the fierce heat. The smell of plum jam fills the kitchen. Flesh bubbles, edges blacken, plum juices burst from their skins and mingle with the honey and lemon. Twenty minutes later they emerge, collapsed in a pool of deepest purple-red. I twist the lid from a bottle of rosewater, hand-made, no label, and shake drops over the scorched fruit. A scent of rose, sweet fruit and honey. We let the fruit rest for ten minutes. The roasted plums are served on an old tin dish, a mound of salted labneh at their side, the juices seeping into the soft, thick yoghurt like lipstick into a pantomime dame's pancake make-up. I rain a pinch of dried rose petals over the surface and offer them up. We spoon the soft fruit and labneh into our mouths, then lift the dishes to our lips to drink the last drop of rose-perfumed juice.”

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Book:A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts
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“Beirut port, confirmed as the principal port of the Syrian interior, was enlarged and modernized, a second dock was constructed and the city, provided with an airport, progressed to become a center for international communication. According to a new urban plan, the city was re-centered around Place de l’Étoile, designed on the model of that of the French capital, and the Parliament and a new business quarter were inaugurated there on the occasion of the French Colonial Exposition of 1921. These projects contributed to the development of a tertiary sector dominated by a merchant/financial bourgeoisie, which was becoming more and more embedded into the mandate system. This was supplemented by the expansion of education, another mandate policy, which helped create a middle class destined for liberal professions and the bureaucracy.”

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Book:A History of Modern Lebanon
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“And the PRCS [Palestinian Red Crescent Society] had not lost just one hospital: thirteen clinics and nine hospitals all over Lebanon had been destroyed in this way. Only Gaza Hospital, for a reason I was to discover three years later, was still standing. At the height of the air raids, when the Palestinians found out that every single PRCS hospital and clinic was a bomb target, they put three Israeli soldiers captured in south Lebanon on the upper floors of Gaza Hospital, and radioed a message to the Israeli Army saying that any further military action on Gaza Hospital would result in Israeli lives being lost. That saved Gaza Hospital from further destruction.”

Self DefenseHostageLebanonSelf DefenceMiddle East ConflictSabra And Shatila Massacre
Book:From Beirut to Jerusalem
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“Hysteria! And grief and bitterness. That's what goes on. Not satisfied that our fighters evacuated the city, the enemy went after their women and children whom they left behind in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, slaughtered them, and left their bodies stacked in grotesque piles in the muddy lanes, fly-covered, rotting in the sun. They went after our Palestine Research Center the repository of our culture and history in exile, whose treasures we had been collecting since the day we left Palestine, looted it then burned it to the ground. Fifteen thousand of our people, including boys under the age if twelve and men over the age of eighty, were picked up and put in a concentration camp called Ansar. Our community in Lebanon, half a million men, women, and children found itself suddenly severed from institutions (educational, medical, cultural, economic, and social) they had depended on for their everyday living, which the enemy destroyed. Our fighters, the mainspring of our national struggle, were shipped to thre deserts of Algeria, the outback of Sudan, and the scorching plain of Yemen. Our leadership sought refuge in Tunisia. And when the choked psyche of our nation gasped for air, some months later, we lunged atat each other in civil war, because we had failed our people and ourselves. Our promises had proved illusory.”

GenocideHolocaustPalestineLebanonWar CrimesSabra And Shatila MassacreIsraeli Brutality
Book:Soul in Exile
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“I am fine and of course I am lying remember I am Lebanese or nod ask how everyone I know is doing don’t you see that far away country my mother bursts into tears the front door resilient smoke dust the rubble has become blanket and bed warm like mine the fire is blazing the flag burnt flesh on a phone screen the demolition of war what is the definition fleeing their homes they are dying they are not crying out for help lend a hand hold a heart for being arab I am not brave”

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Author:Maha Hashwi
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“Israel's shooting down of a civilian airplane and then the killing of 107 innocent peopel aboard, and their raid into neutral Lebanon are very dangerous developments. There's only one way I can see to stop it...is for the United States to take a very strong stand that this has to be settled...politically settled.”

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Author:J. William Fulbright
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“Any assassination is an assassination. It's cold, it's terrible. I'm against any capital punishment. Only the Lord has the right to take away life because he's the giver of life. And assassination stands against democracy, against civilization, against a civilized life of people. Alas, the situation in Lebanon is very chaotic and many innocent people lost their lives because they have a state within a state, an army within an army and the respect for life is not high enough.”

PeopleStatesEnoughLife IsLostSituationLordDemocracyColdTerribleCivilizationArmyPunishmentInnocentCivilizedAlasGiverChaoticAssassinationCapital PunishmentLebanon
Author:Shimon Peres
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“True, when you behold Damascus from the Salahiyeh, the last slope of the Anti-Lebanon, it is the realization of all that you have dreamed of Oriental splendor; the world has no picture more dazzling. It is Beauty carried to the Sublime, as I have felt when overlooking some boundless forest of palms within the tropics.”

WorldLastsFeltForestsRealizationSublimePalmsBoundlessSplendorSlopesDazzlingLebanonOverlookingTropics
Book:The Lands of the Saracen, Or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain
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“Another longstanding foreign policy flaw is the degree to which special interests dictate the way in which the "national interest" as a whole is defined and pursued.... America's important historic relationship with Israel has often led foreign policy decision-makers to defer reflexively to Israeli security assessments, and to replicate Israeli tactics, which, as the war in Lebanon last summer demonstrated, can turn out to be counter-productive.”

WayImportantWarWholeLastsAmericaTurnsInterestDecisionSpecialSecurityPolicyDegreesSummerIsraelDefinedProductiveFlawsMakersForeign PolicyHistoricTacticsPursuedIsraeliAssessmentSpecial InterestsLebanonNational InterestsReplicateDecision MakersLast Summer
Author:Samantha Power
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“Young men, you who have any piety at all, what sort is it? Is it a hot-house plant, which must be framed and glassed, lest March, that bold young fellow, should shake the life out.of it in his rough play among the flowers? or is it a hardy shrub, which rejoices when the wild winds course along the heather or howl above the crest of Lebanon ' We need, believe me, the bravery of godliness to bear true witness for our Master now.”

MenNeedsShouldBelievePlayYoungCoursesHouseWindFlowerMastersBearsBraveryHotFellowsPlantWitnessYoung ManShakesMarchRoughRejoiceBelieve In MePietyGodlinessHowlFramedHardyLebanonShrubsHeathers
Book:Lectures and Sermons
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“The decimation of Lebanon was showing up in Chicago as a series of restaurants and little shops, just as the destruction of Vietnam had been visible here a decade earlier. If you never read the news but ate out a lot you should be able to tell who was getting beaten up around the world.”

IfsWorldShouldLittlesAbleNewsDestructionSeriesDecadesAround The WorldRestaurantsVisibleShopsChicagoVietnamBeatenShowing UpLebanon
Book:Killing Orders
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