Ameen Rihani Quotes - Page 2

Like matter itself, an ideal is mutable, but indestructible. It does not die; it only undergoes a change.

I am the East. I have philosophies, I have religions, who would exchange them for airplanes?

We can not understand each other, if every time we venture out we stick the feather of cocksureness in our caps. No, we can never wholly understand each other, and rise to the level of mutual esteem at least, if we do not invest in that fellow feeling that triumphs over class and creed and race and color.

I want to accept all the difficulties that face me in life with perseverance and patience.

No boundaries exist in our breast: We are free .

Like the seasons of the year, like history, truth always repeats itself.

At this moment, my soul is in Lebanon, my heart in Paris, and my body in New York.

If I were capable of assisting someone, I would do it in a manner that would cause the person seeking assistance to work, so he assists himself.

I deposit in many banks including the bank of wisdom. The more I draw on my accounts, no matter how big the sum, the bigger my balance becomes

The duties I ask of myself are obligatory for absolutely every individual, everywhere. Moreover, just as I recognize these rights and duties of others, I would like the others to recognize them form me as well.

What is life without its angles of difficulty and defeat, and its tip of triumph and power?

If I had in me something that inspires people towards the good and raises them one step on the ladder of mental and spiritual progress, I want to show it by example, indication, and deduction, not by preaching, threatening, and conspiring.

A poet is a poet, whether he rides in a Ford or on a donkey; a sage is a sage, whether he plays golf in New Jersey or bathes in the Ganges, or prays in the desert; and a fool is a fool, whether he be a maharaja or a president of a post-war republic.

True knowledge is power; but in order to feel at home with it, we must be constitutionally qualified. And if we are not, it is likely to give the soul such a twist as to deform it forever.

In the Lakes of Light, Love and Will, I would baptize all mankind.

An object is great in proportion to its power of resistance to time and the elements. That is why we think the pyramids are great. But see, the desert is greater than the pyramids, and the sea is greater than the desert, and the heavens are greater than the sea.

Training the will in trivial and grave matters increases its strength and flexibility, and enables man to constantly strive and persevere.

We can not understand each other, if our sympathies are always safely tucked away; we can not understand each other, if our approaches are always academic or conventional; we can not understand each other, if we crawl back into our shells every time we see a worm across our path.

Yes, I am calling for an intellectual revolution that sweeps away the corruption, absurdity and error, which prevail in morals, customs, traditions, and doctrines.

The will is the spirit of perseverance, and perseverance holds clear success.

Mutual tolerance is the stepping stone to mutual respect. A hospitable mind is the key to a neighboring or an alien spirit, looked by dogma and guarded by tradition.

We must strive to form a comprehensive sublime nationalism whose first principal is national geographic unity and must strengthen this unity with deeds not with words.

The broader and higher aspects of life are international.... There is a goal towards which all nations gravitate, and there is a common ground upon which all nations meet.

True up-bringing is restricted to two types of welfare; the welfare of the body and that of the mind.

... And if Europe gives Arabia a railway, Arabia gives Europe an idea - which I think balances the account.