Cover by Randa Baini
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There are many things I did not like, yet I saw many people admire them and defend them
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Instead of carrying your cross and walking, sit down and let your enemies carry it
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Only the one who has no generosity is disgusted by giving
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Lebanon will not be saved except by the hands of its honourable sons, so let us work sincerely to save it. It is our homeland, and we have no other homeland in the East. It is what we look forward to, and it is what we dream of, and for it we sing, write, and cry
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I will not celebrate your birthday, O Lord, while the wind of sorrow, the hand of death and alienation paralyse my people
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Between delusion and reality, the conjunction “and” stretches
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Haven't you noticed yet that some religious men love fame more than dancers and fashion models?
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All the poets I have read, I have studied under, except for the showing off "masters" among them
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A people who destroys their country for the sake of the president's survival... has no head
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Lebanon will not change unless its sectarian system of government changes and its sectarian cantons disappear.
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If your hand were not an oasis, generosity would not have let its camels kneel and dismounted.
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If you want to judge the authority in any country, watch the traffic policeman, for he is the face that the authorities cannot hide.
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I'm sure the inventors of Viagra were of Arab origin, otherwise they wouldn't have thought of it.
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Lebanon, as we see it, is divided along sectarian lines in a disgusting way. As soon as you mention the name of a region in it, you describe it as sectarian. Therefore, we find that most of our politicians do not work for the benefit of Lebanon as a whole, but rather for the benefit of their narrow regions, which give them the power to control those regions.
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When children make mistakes, we laugh with them, and when adults make mistakes, we laugh at them.
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What a wretched country is when its citizens climb and slide over its laws. What a wretched citizen is when he plays around with the law. What a wretched ruler is when he enacts the law and wiped his ass with its papers.
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I am amazed at people who pick up the dollar with their tongues but their hands are empty.
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Be bright as the sun, lest the fingers of an ignorant man extinguish you.
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He whose hand is paralysed from giving will never tread the threshold of glory.
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Humility and love are essential wings for an artist to fly and soar.
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There is a fatal disease in our Arab homeland that girls suffer from, which paralyses their abilities and limits their creativity. They must be saved from it, and this will only be done by granting them freedom and providing them with a pioneering cultural, social, scientific and sexual sap that gives them self-confidence that transforms them from an ignorant woman into an intelligent woman, from a mother-servant to a mother-servant, and from a fearful wife to a loyal, mature and understanding wife.
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Attacking others is not as easy as some people think, because it dissects them as they dissect, and places them, before the eyes of truth, on the table of strict comparison: Who is better, them or those who criticize them?
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The difference between a critic and a reader is that the critic plays with us, while we play with the reader.
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We must educate the Arab girl sexually, and give her some freedom, so that she can choose the person who makes her happy and whom she can make happy, and we must abandon the role of guardian over her, because no one at all knows what is in her secrets, especially if the issue is related to her intimate sexual matters.
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You will never become great, no matter what you do, unless you have the love and respect of others.
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You will never be defeated, as long as your weapon is love.
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O distant lover, my heartbeats disturb me every night, and my dream awaits you.
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I will love you until love grows tired of my love, and brings me into the joy of its master.
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Your innocence, as a man, you can gain from children.
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Writing alone eases the pain of my alienation, so why don't you try it?
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He who does not love others, does not feel their love for him.
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A nation whose rulers are greedy, whose writers are arrogant, and whose children are controlled, politicized, and sectarian will not survive.
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A pious prostitute is better than a deceitful clergyman, who exploits God for his own lusts, whims, policies, and love of dividing God’s children and sowing death in the streets, so that no one will have peace or sleep.
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Manipulating knowledge to please religious men is absolutely not permissible. It is God who has planted knowledge in us, and all we have to do is follow His guidance that He provides us through reason. Who knows, a day may come when people will write on the graves of some religious men: Here lie ignorant people, and they will write on the graves of scholars: Here lie the prophets of God.
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The second biggest issue shaking the Arab world after religion is the hymen, so the girl will continue to exercise her right to get rid of her bodily secretions with extreme secrecy, so that her affair is not exposed, and she is not arrested by the morality police, or slaughtered by the knife of a rebellious brother, as always happens.
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What is happening in the Arab world in terms of distortion and crushing of humanity, pushes all the peoples of the world to cling more to their humanity, more to their democracy, and more to protecting their citizens from black death.
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Woe, then woe to whoever thinks of saving his Arab nation from the clutches of ignorance and poverty. The United Nations is against him, the Arab League is against him, the Arab media is against him, and the dogs of the Arab rulers are against him. Is there a more accursed disgrace than this?!
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Comparing our sexual instinct to that of animals has something of a bias towards animals, since, in complete contrast to us, they do not have intercourse with their young children, but rather destroy anyone who comes near them, in order to preserve the purity of their lineage.
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Our children... our livers walking on the earth, this is what the poet said, and this is how we should look at them, so for God's sake treat them well, and be a good school for them, so that justice prevails and peace spreads in a world where everything in it swims against the current.
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The only good thing about terrorism is that it has begun to unite the rulers and their opponents in the countries it invades, and this is a major democratic scourge.
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If I write, no one reads, and if I read, no one hears. Illiteracy is rampant among my people, and sectarianism pisses on their heads.
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The presidency in the West is a job. When presidents get tired of it, they resign. As for the presidency in the East, it is an inheritance. When presidents get tired of it, they die.
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No, Islam will not become a wall to hide behind. The true Muslims, wherever they are, have come to realize that their Islam came as nothing but mercy to the worlds.
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I am an Arab, therefore I am persecuted. Whether I am a friend or an enemy, loyalist or oppositionist, educated or illiterate, my accusation is ready, the first of which is dealing with the enemy, and the last of which is conspiring against the regime.
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The blessing of procreation and education must be denied to anyone who does not respect and sanctify childhood, and God must not grant it except to those who were created for it, provided that they are at His level.
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The opportunist, if you shake hands with him, will use your hand as a bridge to cross to others.
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If you want to become an important man in your society, curse people. People, in this bad age, do not respect anyone except cursers. Civility has disappeared, self-dignity has committed suicide, and social and human values have declared their bankruptcy. So curse!
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The only thing that comforts me is that I wrote, and the only thing that annoys them is that I wrote, so what is the solution? I don’t know?!
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The most severe type of terrorism is the terrorism of thought, which is practiced by the ruler and the religious man in our wretched Arab East without the slightest mercy.
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Grant me, O God, a faithful friend, so that I may fertilize my tears with his tears.
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Arrogance is a deadly disease that only kills those with small minds.
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The man who turns on his friends with the speed of a destructive projectile, beware of the spray of his saliva.
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Three people whom God does not love: the envious, the arrogant, and the gossiper. The first kills others, the second licks their blood, and the third destroys his society.
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A mother who does not shake the baby bed with her hand will shake the body of the world with her carelessness.
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If religions do not cross-pollinate and intermarry, humanity will remain like a monkey that enjoys licking its own blood.
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Only those who are ignorant of their own beliefs fear the beliefs of others.
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Why do Jews, Christians and Muslims fight each other, if they are truly the children of God?
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The clergyman, whatever his sect is, should be a saint, or he must look for another job to earn his living.
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Do not blame the wind for making too much noise, but rather thank it for the blessing of its presence.
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A ruler who clings to his throne to the point of madness has no good deeds.
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Divorce is a crime committed by the parents, and the law does not punish them for it.
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Freedom of expression cannot be fragmented. It can either shine like the sun, or be swallowed up by obscurity and confiscation.
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The writer who begs people to publish his literature, people will publish his literature on the rooftops.
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We no longer know who is laughing at whom, is it God laughing at us, or are we laughing at God?
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We in our Arab countries are dead and breathing!
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Blessed is he who transcends the past and embraces the future.
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If violence only brings death, constructive dialogue is the best way to life.
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It is strange how our leaders in the Arab world want to rule us, even by force.
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The most cursed of friends is he who uses your friendship as a dagger to stab his enemies.
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The writer who is afraid of words will be dragged out of his ears by words.
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A nation that ignores the gifts of its children is a slave
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Reason always beats the gun, provided it does not surrender.
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The most beautiful phrase I heard from my mother is: My son, carry your joy and walk.
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A miser is a man who dies twice, so that his heirs may live after him.
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