“It's fear that makes us lose our conscience. It's also what transforms us into cowards.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“The regime had understood that one person leaving her house while asking herself:
Are my trousers long enough?
Is my veil in place?
Can my make-up be seen?
Are they going to whip me?
No longer asks herself:
Where is my freedom of thought?
Where is my freedom of speech?
My life, is it liveable?
What's going on in the political prisons?”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“We can only feel sorry for ourselves when our misfortunes are still supportable. Once this limit is crossed, the only way to bear the unbearable is to laugh at it.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“When we're afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection. Our fear paralyzes us. Besides, fear has always been the driving force behind all dictators' repression.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“In every religion, you find the same extremists.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“Anyway, that's how it is! Either they obey the law, or they're expelled!! And make sure they wear their veils correctly..." - "If hair is as stimulating as you say, then you need to shave your moustache!" My father actually said that.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“I rushed to the living room to protect myself from I don't know what, behind my best friend, a book.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“War always takes you by surprise.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“Rule number six: Everybody should have a car
Rule number seven: All maids should eat at the table with the others
Rule number eight: No old person should have to suffer
Grandmother: In that case, I'll be your first disciple.
Persepolis: Really?
Grandmother: But tell me how you'll arrange for old people not to suffer?
Persepolis: It will simply be forbidden.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“People don't know anymore why we've had eight years of war. Why their children have died...This entire war was just a big setup to destroy both the Iranian and the Iraqi armies. The former was the most powerful in the Middle East in 1980, and the latter represented a real danger to Israel. The West sold weapons to both camps and we, we were stupid enough to enter into this cynical game...eight years of war for nothing! So now the state names streets after martyrs to flatter the families of the victims. In this way, perhaps, they'll find some meaning in all this absurdity.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“The Shah stayed on the throne until 1979, when he fled Iran to escape the Islamic revolution.
Since then, this old and great civilization has been discussed mostly in connection with fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism. As an Iranian who has lived more than half of my life in Iran, I know that this image is far from the truth. This is why writing "Persepolis" was so important to me. I believe that an entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists. I also don't want those Iranians who lost their lives in prisons defending freedom, who died in the war against Iraq, who suffered under various repressive regimes, or who were forced to leave their families and flee their homeland to be forgotten.
One can forgive but one should never forget.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“The Germans sell chemical weapons to Iran and Iraq. The wounded are then sent to Germany to be treated. Veritable human guinea pigs.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“I learned that you should always shout louder than your aggressor.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“I wanted to be an educated, liberated woman. And if the pursuit of knowledge meant getting cancer, so be it.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“Despite the doctor’s orders, I bought myself several cartons of cigarettes (…) I think that I preferred to put myself in serious danger rather than confront my shame. My shame at not having become someone, the shame of not having made my parents proud after all the sacrifices they had made for me. The shame of having become a mediocre nihilist.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“En la vida encontrarás muchos imbéciles. Si te hieren, piensa que es su estupidez la que les empuja a hacerte daño. Así evitarás responder a su maldad. Porque no hay nada peor en el mundo que el rencor y la venganza... Mantén siempre tu dignidad, tu integridad y la fidelidad a ti misma (p.159)”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“cuando entré en su habitación estaba llorando... No pertenecíamos a la misma clase social, pero al menos estabamos en la misma cama”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“Don't let it get to you, mom! The Western media also fights against us. That's where our reputation as fundamentalists and terrorists comes from."
"You're right. Between one's fanaticism and the other's disdain, it's hard to know which side to choose. Personally, I hate Saddam and I have no sympathy for the Kuwaitism but I hate just as much the cynicism of the allies who call themselves "liberators" while they're there for the oil."
"Exactly. Just look at Afghanistan! They fought there for ten years. There were 900,000 dead and today the country is still in chaos. No one lifted a finger! Because Afghanistan is poor! The worst is that the intervention in Kuwait is done in the name of the human rights! Which rights? Which humans?"
At the time, this kind of analysis wasn't commonplace. After our own war, we were happy that Iraq got itself attacked and delighted that it wasn't happening in our country. We were finally able to sleep peacefully without fear of missiles... We no longed needed to line up with our food ration coupon...the rest mattered little. And then, there wasn't any more opposition. The protesters had been executed. Or had fled the country any way possible. The regime had absolute power...and most people , in search of a cloud of happiness, had forgotten their political conscience.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“I wanted to be justice, love and the wrath of God all in one”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“El motivo de mi vergüenza y de la revolución es el mismo la diferencia de clase social”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“Preferiría que estuviera vivo y encarcelado que muerto como un héroe”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“Dans ta vie tu rencontreras beaucoup de cons. S'ils te blessent, dis-toi que c'est la bêtise qui les pousse à te faire du mal. Ça t'évitera de répondre à leur méchanceté. Car il n'y a rien de pire au monde que l'amertume et la vengeance. .. Reste toujours digne et intègre à toi même.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“They found records and video-cassettes at their place, a deck of cards, a chess set. In other words, everything that's banned.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“To die a martyr is to inject blood into the veins of society”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“And so I was lost, without any bearings... what could be worse than that?”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“Chouka era muy divertida. Por desgracia, cuando dos años más tarde se casó, su esposo le prohibió verme. Para él, yo era una persona amoral”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO BE LIVED BADLY”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“Guns may shoot and knives may carve, but we won't wear your silly scarves!”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
“With this first cigarette, I kissed childhood goodbye. Now I was a grown-up.”
― Marjane Satrapi, quote from The Complete Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi
Born place: in Rasht, Iran
Born date November 22, 1969
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“To the rocket scientist, you are a problem. You are the most irritating piece of machinery he or she will ever have to deal with. You and your fluctuating metabolism, your puny memory, your frame that comes in a million different configurations. You are unpredictable. You're inconstant. You take weeks to fix. The engineer must worry about the water and oxygen and food you'll need in space, about how much extra fuel it will take to launch your shrimp cocktail and irradiated beef tacos. A solar cell or a thruster nozzle is stable and undemanding. It does not excrete or panic or fall in love with the mission commander. It has no ego. Its structural elements don't start to break down without gravity, and it works just fine without sleep.
To me, you are the best thing to happen to rocket science. The human being is the machine that makes the whole endeavor so endlessly intriguing.”
― Mary Roach, quote from Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
“L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from La Divina Comedia
“When the mind is free of any thought or judgment, it is still and acts like a mirror. Then and only then can we know things as they are.”
― W. Timothy Gallwey, quote from The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance
“If you talk to these extraordinary people, you find that they all understand this at one level or another. They may be unfamiliar with the concept of cognitive adaptability, but they seldom buy into the idea that they have reached the peak of their fields because they were the lucky winners of some genetic lottery. They know what is required to develop the extraordinary skills that they possess because they have experienced it firsthand. One of my favorite testimonies on this topic came from Ray Allen, a ten-time All-Star in the National Basketball Association and the greatest three-point shooter in the history of that league. Some years back, ESPN columnist Jackie MacMullan wrote an article about Allen as he was approaching his record for most three-point shots made. In talking with Allen for that story, MacMullan mentioned that another basketball commentator had said that Allen was born with a shooting touch—in other words, an innate gift for three-pointers. Allen did not agree. “I’ve argued this with a lot of people in my life,” he told MacMullan. “When people say God blessed me with a beautiful jump shot, it really pisses me off. I tell those people, ‘Don’t undermine the work I’ve put in every day.’ Not some days. Every day. Ask anyone who has been on a team with me who shoots the most. Go back to Seattle and Milwaukee, and ask them. The answer is me.” And, indeed, as MacMullan noted, if you talk to Allen’s high school basketball coach you will find that Allen’s jump shot was not noticeably better than his teammates’ jump shots back then; in fact, it was poor. But Allen took control, and over time, with hard work and dedication, he transformed his jump shot into one so graceful and natural that people assumed he was born with it. He took advantage of his gift—his real gift. ABOUT”
― K. Anders Ericsson, quote from Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
“she’d written in the other were dark. Very dark. And fictional, she reminded herself. It had all been very fictional. A safe means to live out the emotions she couldn’t. Process the evil. Had she known what she created was real in any fashion, she’d been much more… responsible. “Someone”
― Lucian Bane, quote from Seven Sons of Zion
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Fruits Basket: The C...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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