Naguib Mahfouz Quotes - Page 2

History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.

The writer interweaves a story with his own doubts, questions, and values. That is art.

Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization.

If we reject science, we reject the common man.

Events at home, at work, in the street - these are the bases for a story.

When you spend time with your friends, what do you talk about? Those things which made an impression on you that day, that week ... I write stories the same way. Events at home, in school, at work, in the street, these are the bases for a story. Some experiences leave such a deep impression that instead of talking about them at the club I work them into a novel.

It's clearly more important to treat one's fellow man well than to be always praying and fasting and touching one's head to a prayer mat.

I love Sufism as I love beautiful poetry, but it is not the answer. Sufism is like a mirage in the desert. It says to you, come and sit, relax and enjoy yourself for a while.

In the calculus of good deeds you have the most to gain.

If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion.

At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.

For the first time in my life, I felt that a wave, a justice was sweeping away a deep-seated decay without any indulgence. I dearly wished that it would keep going without hesitation or deviation, in a spirit of purity forever.

The Arab world also won the Nobel with me. I believe that international doors have opened, and that from now on, literate people will consider Arab literature also. We deserve that recognition.

When will the state of the country be sound?... When its people believe that the end result of cowardice is more disastrous than that of behaving with integrity.

According to Islamic principles, when a man is accused of heresy, he is given the choice between repentance and punishment.

I was afraid of marriage. I had the impression married life would take up all my time. I saw myself drowning in visits and parties. No freedom.

If the urge to write should ever leave me, I want that day to be my last.

Writing is for men who can think and feel, not mindless sensation seekers out of nightclubs and bars. But these are bad times. We are condemned to work with upstarts, clowns who no doubt got their training in a circus and then turned to journalism as the appropriate place to display their tricks.

I am the son of two civilizations that at a certain age in history have formed a happy marriage. The first of these, seven thousand years old, is the Pharaonic civilization; the second, one thousand four hundred years old, is the Islamic civilization.

An allegory is not meant to be taken literally. There is a great lack of comprehension on the part of some readers.

A priest's life is spent between question and answer-- or between a question and the attempt to answer it. The question is the summary of the spiritual life.

I believe society has a right to defend itself, just as the individual has the right to attack that with which he disagrees.

I started writing while I was a little boy. Maybe it's because I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday. Also, my love for good writing pushed me.

paraphrasing.."Science is the language of the intellect of society. Art is language of the entire human personality.

"Death by love is fairer by far than death by illness", said Amenhotep III.