“لقد قرأت بعض الكتب فقط للتقليل من جهلي !”
“حين يصبح الإيمان حقوداً ، بورك الذين يشككون !”
“أنا الذي أشكك بكل شيء ، كيف لا أشكك كذلك بشكوكي ؟”
“ما جدوى السفر حول العالم لرؤية ما يكمن أصلا في قرارة النفس ؟”
“غيري يكتب كما يتكلم ، و أنا أكتب كما ألتزم الصمت”
“وفي صلواتي صرت أرغب أن ابتهل قائلاً
يارب لاتنأى عني كثيراً ولا تقترب مني كثيراً كذلك !
دعني أتأمل النجوم على أهداب ثوبك ولكن لا تكشف لي عن وجهك !
اسمح لي أن أسمع خرير الأنهار التي تجعلها تجري والريح التي تنفخ في الأشجار وضحكات الأطفال الذين قد خلقتهم ولكن إلهي إلهي لا تسمح لي أن أسمع صوتك !”
“فطبيعتى المتشككة التى أنشأنى عليها والدى تقينى من إستفاضات الإيمان العارمة - أو ربما يجدر بي القول إنها تحظر على أى ثبات , سواء فى الحفاظ على التعقل أو فى السعى وراء الأوهام”
“Cette recommandation (Aime ton prochain comme toi-même) paraît, à première vue, irréprochable mais à voir ce que la plupart des gens font de leur vie, à voir ce qu'ils font de leur intelligence, je n'ai pas envie qu'ils m'aiment comme eux-mêmes.”
“كم اشتهي أن أتذوق أيضا و أيضا ، تلك المتعة المرتسمة .لا لحرصي على إبقائها طاهرة للأبد . غير أني لم أمل تلك الجيرة المبهمة ، و ذلك التواطؤ المتعاظم ، و تلك الرغبة الحبلى بالمحن العذبة ، أي باختصار تلك الدرب التي نسلكها معا ، مبتهجين سرا ، و زاعمين في كل مرة أن العناية الإلهية وحدها التي تدفع أحدنا نحو الأخر.
تلك الرغبة تسحرني و لست على يقين من رغبتي بالعبور الى الجهة الأخرى من التلال .
أعرف أنها لعبة لا تخلو من الخطورة . ففي أية لحظة قد تحرقنا النيران ، و لكن كم كانت نهاية العالم تلوح بعيدة نائية في تلك الليلة.”
“La route quelquefois s'agrémente de fables, comme le sommeil s'agrémente de songes, il faut savoir ouvrir les yeux à l'arrivée.”
“هذه المرأة لم تشبع في قرارة نفسي شهوة الجسد التي تعتري الرحالة بل لطَّفت محنتي الأولى. فقد ولدت غريباً، وعشت غريباً، وسوف أموت وقد تعاظمت غربتي. وغروري يمنعني من ذكر العداء، والإهانات، والضغينة، والمعاناة. ولكن النظرات والحركات لا تخفي عليَّ. فعناق بعض النساء يلوح كالمنفى، وعناق بعضهن الآخر يذكر بالأرض الأم”
“What's a year in comparison with eternity? what's a day? an hour? a second? Such measures have meaning only for a heart that's still beating.”
“I look at the world and my own life as if I were a stranger. I wish for nothing, except perhaps that time would stop.”
“...people always manage to 'prove' what they want to believe; they'd be just as well off if they tried to prove the opposite.”
“What strange times we live in, when good must disguise itself in the tawdry rags of evil!”
“Some women's arms are places of exile; others are a native land.”
“Perhaps writing only arouses the passions in order to allay them, as beaters flush out the game in order to expose it to the hunter's arrows.”
“So I've become an exile without ever leaving my country.”
“Some women's arms are placed of exile; others are a native land.”
“...it's better to wake up amid the pangs of desire than amid those of remorse.”
“Have you read the things that were published in Moskovskiye Novosti and Ogonyok in those days? For instance, General Kalugin’s exposures?10 Kalugin is a traitor. I saw Kalugin during my time in Leningrad when he was deputy head of the Directorate. He was an absolute loafer. A loafer, perhaps, but he remembers you. He doesn’t remember anything. He does remember, and he says that from the point of view of the intelligence service, you worked in a province and had nothing to show for your performance. Oh, he doesn’t remember a thing. He couldn’t remember me. I had no contact with him, nor did I meet him. It is I who remembers him, because he was a big boss and everybody knew him. As to whether he knew me, there were hundreds of us.”
“It’s an odd thing to be sad about someone in death that you never really cared for in life and a thing that chooses its own moment to sneak up on you—usually”
“Knowledge is power, but it is a terrible power when it is hoarded and hidden.”
“I want someone who puts the whole ball of wax at risk. I want the kind of marriage where we would follow each other out into the stormy fatal sea or I'm not marrying at all.”
“No sane person could witness what they saw every day in the field, or carry out the acts of violence they were tasked with, and not come away affected.”
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