"The past is really unknowable, but it’s got to be knowable enough so that we can seek forgiveness for our crimes…"

Ariel Dorfman Literature See all quotes by Ariel Dorfman →

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“More than a traveler, I’m a displacer. In other words, I’m a person who is constantly meditating on what it means not to arrive at a place, but to be on my way somewhere else.”

“Not to belong anywhere, to be displaced, is not a bad thing for a writer…If you can deal with it. If it doesn’t destroy you.”

“I think the genre decides for me—which sounds like a way of avoiding the question unless I explain first that this chameleon-like border crossing, this shifting of genre identities is, I realize, parallel to, or anticipates, or recollects my own life. I’m probably fluctuating across genres perhaps because my identity itself is always in flux…”

Resonant Thoughts

"In our African tradition, there are never two chiefs; there is sometimes a natural heir to the chief, but can anyone tell me that he has ever known a village that has two chiefs? That is why we Congol…"

— Mobutu Sésé Seko

Politics1930–1997

#knowledge

"In proportion as we " grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ," we shall grow in the desire that the Redeemer's sovereignty may be more widely and visibly extended."

— Henry Melvill

Religion1798–1871

#knowledge

"When we enter samadhi and understand impermanence, we are unshaken. Everything is constantly changing, including ourselves."

— Gautama Buddha

Philosophy-563–-483

#knowledge

"No matter how many buildings, foundations, schools and hospitals we build, or how many bridges we raise, all these are material entities. The real spirit behind progress is the human spirit, the able …"

— Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan

Politics1918–2004

#knowledge