Zeitoun Quotes

Be strong, be brave, be true. Endure.

Yes, a dark time passed over this land, but now there is something like light.

What is building, and rebuilding and rebuilding again, but an act of faith?

Then he got more books. He saved all the books.

If your hand doesn't work for it, your heart doesn't feel sorry for it.

It only takes one person, one small act of stepping from the dark to the light.

Every time a crime was committed by a Muslim, that person's faith was mentioned, regardless of its relevance. When a crime is committed by a Christian, do they mention his religion? ... When a crime is committed by a black man, it's mentioned in the first breath: 'An African American man was arrested today...' But what about German Americans? Anglo Americans? A white man robs a convenience store and do we hear he's of Scottish descent? In no other instance is the ancestry mentioned.

She felt some measure of relief knowing that in the very least, on the open road she would have some time to think.

There is no faith like the faith of a builder of homes in coastal Louisiana

But when friends would ask Kathy whether they, too, should start their own business, she talked them out of it. You don’t run the business, she would say. The business runs you.

What would happen," Zeitoun asked the captain, "if you and I went below the deck, and just went to our bedrooms and went to sleep?" The captain gave him a quizzical look and answered that the ship would most certainly hit something -- would run aground or into a reef. In any event, disaster. "So without a captain, the ship cannot navigate." "Yes," the captain said, "What's your point?" Zeitoun smiled. "Look above you, at the stars and moon. How do the stars keep their place in the sky, how does the moon rotate around the earth, the earth around the sun? Who's navigating?" The captain smiled at Zeitoun. He'd been led into a trap. "Without someone guiding us," Zeitoun finished, "wouldn't the stars and moon fall to earth, wouldn't the oceans overrun the land? Any vessel, any carrier of humans, needs a captain, yes?" The captain was taken with the beauty of the metaphor, and let his silence imply surrender.

Are the kids at school?" "No, they're in the lake. My God.

The country he had left thirty years ago had been a realistic place. There were political realities there, then and now, that precluded blind faith, that discouraged one from thinking that everything, always, would work out fairly and equitably. But he had come to believe such things in the United States. Things had worked out. Difficulties had been overcome. He had worked hard and achieved success. The machinery of government functioned.

His frustration with some Americans was like that of a disappointed parent. He was so content in this country, so impressed with and loving of its opportunities, but then why, sometimes, did Americans fall short of their best selves?

she knew he would not rest until he had done it. It was maddening. It was strange, even. But then again, she thought, it gave their marriage a certain epic scope.

among us

The buildings looked like mere children’s blocks from a distance. The sun hid behind the interlaced clouds, softening the atmosphere and blurring the edges of the individual objects in the landscape. Paris appeared as it would on an impressionist artist’s canvas – real but without exact details.

She strolled down the boulevard with a melancholic expression on her face and the weight of the world on her back.

It’s big, but isn’t it beautiful?” Kathy asked. “Yes, like you!” he joked. “Watch it,” she said. “I can lose this weight, but you’re never growing that hair back.

Le silence a la couleur de l'oubli, Et l'apparence d'une rose ; Ses épines parlent un langage, Que seul le jour comprend.

Un cadeau tombé du ciel, Emprunte toujours ses tons : Colorés et lumineux. Comme le sourire et le rire, De l'être pour qui, On donnerait les étoiles.

Entre les pierres, Naissent les fleurs, Jardin de l’impossible, Pourtant voit le jour.

L’émerveillement ne connaît pas de limite, Dans ce paysage où les pas Dirigent toujours vers la beauté Du jour et des nuits.

La poésie s’écrit : Dans la poche d’un amour risqué. Pour que votre audace trouve foyer, Et illumine cet Autre.

... Ce que je sais, C’est tenir la corde d’un sourire, Et tirer vers le ciel, Ouvrir les portes de la galaxie, Et laisser fusionner l’univers ...

L’éternité est cachée quelque part : Entre deux désirs inassouvis, Et l’envie folle de les voir satisfaits.