Naguib Mahfouz

Hurricanes are named after people, baby, and I hope you know that falling in love with me will be so much more treacherous than boarding up the windows and waiting for me to pass.

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him.

The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most. God will take care that we do not enjoy it any more than is good for us.

Absolutely speaking, Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you is by no means a golden rule, but the best of current silver. An honest man would have but little occasion for it. It is golden not to have any rule at all in such a case.

That which is false troubles the heart, but truth brings joyous tranquility.

Who can guess how much industry and providence and affection we have caught from the pantomime of brutes?

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

Should not every apartment in which man dwells be lofty enough to create some obscurity overhead, where flickering shadows may play at evening about the rafters?

The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.

A man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.

It all depends on you. You can go on sleeping forever, you can wake up right this moment.

Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions.

Sobriety, severity, and self-respect are the foundations of all true sociality.

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.