Top 37 Quotes & Sayings by Nizar Qabbani

If you want to kill somebody, conquer his heart, Then leave slowly and leave them between death and madness.

Light is more important than the lantern, The poem more important than the notebook

In the summer I stretch out on the shore And think of you. Had I told the sea What I felt for you, It would have left its shores, Its shells, Its fish, And followed me.

Our enemies did not cross our borders They crept through our weaknesses like ants.

Arab children, Corn ears of the future, You will break our chains, Kill the opium in our heads, Kill the illusions. Arab children, Don't read about our suffocated generation, We are a hopeless case. We are as worthless as a water-melon rind. Dont read about us, Dont ape us, Dont accept us, Dont accept our ideas, We are a nation of crooks and jugglers. Arab children, Spring rain, Corn ears of the future, You are the generation That will overcome defeat.

A tragedy, when a mature mind and a romantic heart are in the same body.

When a man is in love how can he use old words? Should a woman desiring her lover lie down with grammarians and linguists? I said nothing to the woman I loved but gathered love's adjectives into a suitcase and fled from all languages.

Don’t lose a woman that has seen your flaws and still love you.

We are a thick skinned people with emtpy souls. We spend our days playing dice, chess, or sleeping - and we say we are the best people that ever came to mankind?

My lover asks me: “What is the difference between me and the sky?” The difference, my love, Is that when you laugh, I forget about the sky

Some are like the Moon, good looking, but only when they're away from you.

The female doesn't want a rich man or a handsome man or even a poet, she wants a man who understands her eyes if she gets sad, and points to his chest and say : 'Here is your home country.'

Because my love for you is beyond words, I decided to shut up.

The word is a bouncing ball The ruler throws from his balcony. The word has been a shot of morphine. Rulers calm their people with speeches.

Dive into the sea, or stay away

And I fear that my place gets taken by some other one, very lucky and not too shy, who flirts with your eyes while I’m the one who’s crazy about them.

We killed you and it was not new for us, we killed the companions of the Prophet and the friends of God. O how many Messengers did we slay? O how many imams? We killed you and you prayed the night prayer, as all of our days are struggle - and all of our days are Karbala.

never believe a man can change a woman those men are pretenders who think that they created women from one of their ribs

Your love taught me to grieve and I have been needing, for centuries a woman to make me grieve for a woman, to cry upon her arms like a sparrow for a woman to gather my pieces like shards of broken crystal

There are some people that we didn't forget, but we don't smile any more when they're mentioned.

Love in the Arab world is like a prisoner, and I want to set (it) free. I want to free the Arab soul, sense and body with my poetry. The relationships between men and women in our society are not healthy.

And all the countries seemed the same, That I don't see myself there, And I don't see myself here.

And the writing is still : to you, with you, about you, because of you and for you.

My Master... Say all you wish of me. It does not matter to me:Shallow.. Stupid.. Crazy.. Simple minded. It does not concern me anymore. For whoever writes about her concerns. in the logic of Men is called a stupid woman. and didn't I tell you in the beginning that I am a stupid woman?

Don't love deeply, till you make sure that the other part loves you with the same depth, because the depth of your love today, is the depth of your wound tomorrow.

O Sultan, my master, if my clothes are ripped and torn it is because your dogs with claws are allowed to tear me.

What we feel is beyond words. We should be ashamed of our poems.

The most dangerous heart disease: strong memory

It's painful to listen to the barking of dogs.

There is who loves you quietly, and respects you quietly, and wishes you privately, and walks away when he sees you busy with someone other than him, and his ego restrains him from getting near you, and contents himself with the love for the sake of love

Days will pass, and you’ll abandon things you were addicted to, and leave someone, and cancel a dream, and finally, accept a reality.

Before you came the world was prose. Now poetry is born.

Our shouting is louder than our actions, Our swords are taller than us, This is our tragedy. In short We wear the cape of civilisation But our souls live in the stone age

We need an angry generation, A generation to plow the horizons

Kill him, then hug him. Men are more faithful when dead.

We praise like frogs, Swear like frogs, Turn midgets into heroes, and heroes into scum: We never stop and think.

Life doesn't stop after losing someone, but it goes on without them differently.