"History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself."
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Quote collection
Naguib Mahfouz quotes (page 3 of 4)
78 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"We are like a woman with a difficult pregnancy. We have to rebuild the social classes in Egypt, and we must change the way things were."
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"He seemed to be waiting for a miracle to save him from the depths his life had reached and take him to a land of dreams."
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"I believe society has a right to defend itself, just as the individual has the right to attack that with which he disagrees."
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"Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization."
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"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."
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"I reject any path which rejects life, but I can't help loving Sufism because it sounds so beautiful. It gives relief in the midst of battle."
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"Insults are the business of the court."
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"Freedom of expression must be considered sacred and thought can only be corrected by counter thought."
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"As the tension eases, we must look in the direction of agriculture, industry and education as our final goals, and toward democracy under Mr Mubarak."
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"I was a government employee in the morning and a writer in the evening."
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"One effect that the Nobel Prize seems to have had is that more Arabic literary works have been translated into other languages."
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"I was suffering from a peculiar and persistent sense that I was being pursued, and also the conviction that under the political order of the times, our lives had no meaning."
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"In the calculus of good deeds you have the most to gain."
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"paraphrasing.."Science is the language of the intellect of society. Art is language of the entire human personality."
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"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."
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"The Koran and the laws of all civilized nations legislate against the vilification of religions."
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"It is simply not part of my culture to preserve notes. I have never heard of a writer preserving his early drafts."
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"We used the Western style to express our own themes and stories. But don't forget that our heritage includes The Thousand and One Nights."
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"My wife thought I deserved it, but I always thought the Nobel a Western prize."
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