Adam Dahr > Adam's Quotes

“Why should we place Christ at the top and summit of the human race? Was he kinder, more forgiving, more self-sacrificing than Buddha? Was he wiser, did he meet death with more perfect calmness, than Socrates? Was he more patient, more charitable, than Epictetus? Was he a greater philosopher, a deeper thinker, than Epicurus? In what respect was he the superior of Zoroaster? Was he gentler than Lao-tsze, more universal than Confucius? Were his ideas of human rights and duties superior to those of Zeno? Did he express grander truths than Cicero? Was his mind subtler than Spinoza’s? Was his brain equal to Kepler’s or Newton’s? Was he grander in death – a sublimer martyr than Bruno? Was he in intelligence, in the force and beauty of expression, in breadth and scope of thought, in wealth of illustration, in aptness of comparison, in knowledge of the human brain and heart, of all passions, hopes and fears, the equal of Shakespeare, the greatest of the human race?”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, About The Holy Bible

“I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time.”
― Virginia Woolf, The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume Three, 1923-1928

“Realize your youth while you have it. Don’t squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age. Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing”
― Oscar Wilde

“Have I have played my part well in the comedy of life? If so, clap your hands and dismiss me from the stage with applause.”
― Augustus

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
― James Baldwin

“Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.”
― Gustave Flaubert

“We are oft to blame in this, -
'tis too much proved, - that with devotion's visage,
and pios action we do sugar o'er
the devil himself.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

“. . . Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.
Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you're Count Dracula.
Here's an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don't do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don't tell anybody what you're doing. Don't show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?
Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash recepticals [sic]. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what's inside you, and you have made your soul grow.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
― George Carlin

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“I didn't want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that's really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you're so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare.”
― Ned Vizzini, It's Kind of a Funny Story

“If you know someone who’s depressed, please resolve never to ask them why. Depression isn’t a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression just is, like the weather.

Try to understand the blackness, lethargy, hopelessness, and loneliness they’re going through. Be there for them when they come through the other side. It’s hard to be a friend to someone who’s depressed, but it is one of the kindest, noblest, and best things you will ever do.”
― Stephen Fry

“Killing oneself is, anyway, a misnomer. We don't kill ourselves. We are simply defeated by the long, hard struggle to stay alive. When somebody dies after a long illness, people are apt to say, with a note of approval, "He fought so hard." And they are inclined to think, about a suicide, that no fight was involved, that somebody simply gave up. This is quite wrong.”
― Sally Brampton, Shoot the Damn Dog: A Memoir of Depression

“Others imply that they know what it is like to be depressed because they have gone through a divorce, lost a job, or broken up with someone. But these experiences carry with them feelings. Depression, instead, is flat, hollow, and unendurable. It is also tiresome. People cannot abide being around you when you are depressed. They might think that they ought to, and they might even try, but you know and they know that you are tedious beyond belief: you are irritable and paranoid and humorless and lifeless and critical and demanding and no reassurance is ever enough. You're frightened, and you're frightening, and you're "not at all like yourself but will be soon," but you know you won't.”
― Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

“يُسمعني.. حـينَ يراقصُني
كلماتٍ ليست كالكلمات
يأخذني من تحـتِ ذراعي
يزرعني في إحدى الغيمات
والمطـرُ الأسـودُ في عيني
يتساقـطُ زخاتٍ.. زخات
يحملـني معـهُ.. يحملـني
لمسـاءٍ ورديِ الشُـرفـات
وأنا.. كالطفلـةِ في يـدهِ
كالريشةِ تحملها النسمـات
يحمـلُ لي سبعـةَ أقمـارٍ
بيديـهِ وحُزمـةَ أغنيـات
يهديني شمسـاً.. يهـديني
صيفاً.. وقطيـعَ سنونوَّات
يخـبرني.. أني تحفتـهُ
وأساوي آلافَ النجمات
و بأنـي كنـزٌ... وبأني
أجملُ ما شاهدَ من لوحات
يروي أشيـاءَ تدوخـني
تنسيني المرقصَ والخطوات
كلماتٍ تقلـبُ تاريخي
تجعلني امرأةً في لحظـات
يبني لي قصـراً من وهـمٍ
لا أسكنُ فيهِ سوى لحظات
وأعودُ.. أعودُ لطـاولـتي
لا شيءَ معي.. إلا كلمات”
― نزار قباني

“Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death--ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible for life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

“اثنان أهل الأرض : ذو عقــلٍ بلا ديــن وآخر ديِّنٌ لا عقل لهْ”
― أبو العلاء المعري

“في اللاذقية ضجة ما بين أحمد والــــمسيحُ
هذا بناقوس يدق وذا بمئذنة يــــــــــــصيحُ
كلٌ يعظِّم دنيه يا ليت شعري ما الصحيحُ ؟”
― أبو العلاء المعري

“هذا جناه أبي عليّ ، وما جنيت على أحد”
― أبو العلاء المعري

“أنهيتَ عن قتل النفوس تعمدا وبعثت أنت لقبضها ملكين؟

وزعمت أن لنا معادا ثانيا ما كان أغناها عن الحالين

إن كان لا يحظى برزقك عاقــل وترزق مجنونا وترزق أحمقا

فلا ذنب يارب السماء على امرئ رأى من ما يشتهي فتزندقا”
― أبو العلاء المعري

“تلوا باطلاً وجلو صارماً..وقالوا: أصبنا؟ فقلنا:نعم!”
― أبو العلاء المعري

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
― Dr. Seuss

“ذو العقلِ يشقى في النعيمِ بعقلهِ
وأخو الجهالةِ في الشقاوةِ ينعمُ”
― أبو الطيب المتنبي