Naguib Mahfouz quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Naguib Mahfouz

Naguib Mahfouz Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Naguib Mahfouz on Wise Famous Quotes.

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

No blasphemy harms Islam and Muslims so much as the call for murdering a writer

I didn't make any money from my writing until much later. I published about 80 stories for nothing. I spent on literature.

But not to take a step forward is to take two steps backward", Abnum protested.

~ Before the Throne

Home is not where you were born; home is where all your attempts to escape cease.

I am practically in the employ of Mr. Nobel. I have to meet everyone he sends my way.

The real malady is fear of life, not of death

The heart is a place of secrets ...

A crazy country, choking air, polluted hearts, treachery. Treachery and treason.

I want a world where hearts are not deceived and do not deceive others.

It is simply not part of my culture to preserve notes. I have never heard of a writer preserving his early drafts.

Oh...why has time changed us?

I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised.

In Egypt today most people are concerned with getting bread to eat. Only some of the educated understand how democracy works.

Don't go back over the past. Let it depart, never to return.

I accepted the interviews and encounters that had to be held with the media, but I would have preferred to work in peace.

Why don't we keep track of the happy moments, so that afterward we will believe them? Is he the same man Was he really sincere?

Art is a criticism of society and life, and I believe that if life became perfect, art would be meaningless and cease to exist.

I've never worked in politics, never been a member of an official committee or a political party.

The calendar has a magic that makes us imagine a memory can be resurrected and revived, but nothing returns.

Freedom of expression must be considered sacred and thought can only be corrected by counter thought.

Muhammad Iffat has an inflexible, Turkish mentality but a heart of gold.

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.

Visit me once each year, for it's wrong to abandon people forever.

Fear does not prevent death. It prevents life.

Love is like health. It is taken lightly when present and cherished when it departs.

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

I consider Khomeini's position dangerous. He does not have the right to pass judgment-that is not the Islamic way.

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

The Koran and the laws of all civilized nations legislate against the vilification of religions.

If life has no meaning, why don't we create a meaning for it?

Winning Nobel imposed on me a lifestyle to which I am not used and which I would not have preferred.

We are passing through a very sensitive time, and on the whole, this country is facing very big problems.

Watch out, brother. Turkish women end up going crazy.

One effect that the Nobel Prize seems to have had is that more Arabic literary works have been translated into other languages.

Without literature my life would be miserable.

The One God fashioned women to expose the elements men are made of said Queen Nefertiti.

Excessive concern with religion seems to me a last resort for people who have been exhausted by life.

They had a relaxed look about them, appropriate for people going to a peaceful demonstration sanctioned by the authorities.

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.

You know what I'm afraid of? That God is sick of us.

An anxious heart is like a string that's out of tune.

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

Nothing records the effects of a sad life so graphically as the human body.

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.

I want a world where men live free from fear and coercion.

When disasters come at the same time, they compete with each other.

I found myself in a sea in which the waves of joy and sorrow were clashing against each other.

Falseness in life is the secret that makes man's inner self a rare truth; it hides from him although it's obvious to all.

Fear doesn't prevent death. It prevents life.

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

He knew Muhammad Iffat was of Turkish descent and stubborn as a mule.

Happy is he who can give himself up.

Madness is the acme of intelligence.

What do you have to say as a devout Muslim concerning your lust for women?

I was a government employee in the morning and a writer in the evening.

If we reject science, we reject the common man.

The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems.

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.

April. Month of dust and lies.

We wont develop until we accept that reading is a vital necessity.

When we're in love, we may resent it, but we certainly miss love once it's gone.

After living for a month in his home, her character had been infected with the virus of submission to his will, which terrified everyone in the house.

At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.

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

God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.

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.

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

My wife thought I deserved it, but I always thought the Nobel a Western prize.

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.

There are no heroes in most of my stories. I look at our society with a critical eye and find nothing extraordinary in the people I see.

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

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

Only the poor are handicapped by honor.

I defend both the freedom of expression and society's right to counter it. I must pay the price for differing. It is the natural way of things.

Despite dissimilarities in our luck and success at looking after ourselves, we are all human beings.

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.

There is no alternative to action, and that requires faith. The issue is how we are to mold for ourselves a belief system that is worthy of life.

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

Sadat made us feel more secure.

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

It's a most distressing affliction to have a sentimental heart and a skeptical mind.

The Nobel Prize has given me, for the first time in my life, the feeling that my literature could be appreciated on an international level.

Insults are the business of the court.

Hosni Mubarak ... his constitution is not democratic, but he is democratic. We can voice our opinions now. The press is free.

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

Laugh till you're exhausted.

Every inch a person's body travels on the road of separation seems like miles to the heart.

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.

I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday.