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Quotes by Algerian Authors
"Algeria was therefore only the beginning of something that was in development: this is why I say that it's the global capitalist system that finally reacted against us."
1
"Yes, I am Algerian of Moroccan origin through my parents, but all my life is Algeria. I was born there."
1
"Afghanistan is a land-locked country."
"However, it does seem now that the international community, more importantly the powers that have influence, and, even more importantly, Afghanistan's neighbors realize that it is high time that they work together, and not against one another."
"Give me chastity and continence, but not yet."
"Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty."
Art,
"Colonialism is known in its primitive form, that is to say, by the permanent settling of repressive foreign powers, with an army, services, policies. This phase has known cruel colonial occupations which have lasted 300 years in Indonesia."
"Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again."
"I accommodated practically all of the liberation movements, including those of Latin America."
"It's with them that we have constituted a liberation front and brought our logistic support to armies to help their countries come out of colonialism and establish a national internal regime."
"Probably I understand very much the people who rise against injustice."
"He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king."
Evil,
"But I knew that what had happened was an eye-opener not only to the United States but also to Pakistan, who realized that after what has happened on the 11th of September, it was simply impossible to continue to play those games in Afghanistan."
"The liberation movement which I led in Algeria, the organization that I created to fight the French army, was at first a small movement of nothing at all. We were but some tens of people throughout Algeria, a territory that is five times the size of France."
"What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know."
Time,
"You are dealing with people who have taken the responsibility of killing their own because they think that they are right, they think that they are serving the interests of their people. They not going to give that up easily, just because you've shown up."
"In the past, we spoke of poverty, misery only in the south. Now there is a lot of misery, a lot of bad that creates victims in the north as well. This has become manifest: the global system was not made to serve the good of all, but to serve multinational companies."
"Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation."
"The mandate you go with is intimidating and also is a source of respect that you gain, because you have come with this mandate from the United Nations."
"What again I tell my people is that no matter how much you know, it's never enough. You will always discover, after the fact, that you've missed something."
"The third point is that for some time the UN has been talking about helping Afghanistan in the reconstruction of the country but there has never been any real commitment by the international community to provide resources for that."
"Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee."
"Our bodies are shaped to bear children, and our lives are a working out of the processes of creation. All our ambitions and intelligence are beside that great elemental point."
"Somebody was asking me the other day - President Bush is now talking about freedom for the Arab world. I say, well, that's great. I was talking about that fifty years ago."
"There is also a natural and very, very strong empathy with the underdog, with people who have suffered, people who have been pushed around by foreigners in particular, but also by their own people."
"It is not the punishment but the cause that makes the martyr."
"We make ourselves a ladder out of our vices if we trample the vices themselves underfoot."
"Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature."
"I am the son of poor peasants who came at a very young age to live in Algeria. I only recently saw the place where they were born, near the city of Marrakech."
"From their point of view, I had gone too far. I had to disappear. That is to say, if the Algerian army had not overthrown me, others would have done so."
Army,
"Those who are leftists, once in power, are not different from other parties."
"There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart."
"What I needed most was to love and to be loved, eager to be caught. Happily I wrapped those painful bonds around me; and sure enough, I would be lashed with the red-hot pokers or jealousy, by suspicions and fear, by burst of anger and quarrels."
"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe."
"Of course the UN brings in a lot of moral authority."
"Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others."
God,
"Ideology... is indispensable in any society if men are to be formed, transformed and equipped to respond to the demands of their conditions of existence."
"But you've got to understand what the other guy is about, even if at the end of the process you decide that there is no ground with this man or woman except to fight them."
"People now realize that globalization is not only for the multi-nationals and the circulation of money."
"I can say now: all the combatants who participated in the fight for freedom in South America came to Algeria; it's from there that all those who fought left. We trained them, we arranged for the weapons to reach them, we created networks."
"Yet, history has shown that if material force can defeat some ideologies it can no longer obliterate a civilization without destabilizing the whole planet."
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