Al Ma'arri Quotes

#1. They all err - Muslims, Christians, Jews and Magians. There are two kinds of humans - the intelligent, who have no religion, and the religious, who have no intellect.

Al-Ma'arri

#2. Hanifs (Muslims) are stumbling, Christians all astray
Jews wildered, Magians far on error's way.
We mortals are composed of two great schools
Enlightened knaves or else religious fools.

Al-Ma'arri

#3. In neither taste nor precision is any man's practice a court of last appeal, for writers all, both great and small, are habitual sinners against the light; and their accuser is cheerfully aware that his own work will supply ... many 'awful examples' ...

Ambrose Bierce

#4. Ma vie piu lieta, piu ridente a belle/ ardisce aprire il seno al sol la rosa ... which express that the rose is more daring then the humble violet!

Marina Fiorato

#5. Muslim and non-Muslim from across the world flocked to Baghdad to be part of Al-Ma'mun's project "Bait Al-Hekmah" or "House of Wisdom

Firas Alkhateeb

#6. The talk-box thing that T-Pain does is something new and different for this generation because they don't know about Zapp or Teddy Riley. I think he's creative and has made the talk-box his own in the hip-hop world, but if these young ones studied their musical history, they'd know that.

Keith Sweat

#7. I am inclined to think that these muscles and bones of mine would have gone off long ago to Megara or Boeotia - by the dog they would, if they had been moved only by their own idea of what was best.
(tr Jowett)

Plato

#8. Reason forbade me many things which,
Instinctively, my nature was attracted to;
And a perpetual loss I feel if, knowing,
I believe a falsehood or deny the truth.

Abu'l-A'la Al-Ma'arri

#9. The world holds two classes of men - intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence.

Al-Ma'arri

#10. The river this November afternoon
Rests in an equipoise of sun and cloud:
A glooming light, a gleaming darkness shroud
Its passage. All seems tranquil, all in tune.

Cecil Day-Lewis

#11. Give a drink of water as alms to the birds which go forth at morning, and deem that they have a better right than men [to thy charity]. For their race brings not harm upon thee in any wise, when thou fearest it from thine own race.

Al-Ma'arri

#12. What's brilliant about the United States system of government is separation of power. Not only the executive, legislative, judicial branches, but also the independence of the military from civilians, an independent media and press, an independent central bank.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

#13. A little doubt is better than total credulity

Al-Ma'arri

#14. O fools, awake! The rites ye sacred hold
Are but a cheat contrived by men of old
Who lusted after wealth and gained their lust
And died in baseness-and their law is dust.

Al-Ma'arri

#15. Make not, when you work a deed of shame, The scoundrel's plea, 'My forbears did the same.

Al-Ma'arri

#16. Al said, "We'll burn right up if we got climbin' to do. Have to throw out some a' this stuff. Maybe, we shouldn' a brang that preacher." "You'll be glad a that preacher 'fore we're through," said Ma. "That preacher'll help us.

John Steinbeck

#17. They recite their sacred books, although the fact informs me
that these are a fiction from first to last.
O Reason, thou (alone) speakest the truth.
Then perish the fools who forged the religious traditions or interpreted them!

Al-Ma'arri

#18. The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but no brains.

Al-Ma'arri

#19. The sciences of only one nation, the Greeks, have come down to us, because they were translated through Al-Ma'mun's efforts. He was successful in this direction because he had many translators at his disposal and spent much money in this connection.

Ibn Khaldun

#20. Confidence is on one side of the line, and self-belief is on another. People all think those are mixed up.

Tim Howard