Essays in a Few Lines

• Poor son of Adam! If he feared the Fire as he fears poverty, he would be saved from it altogether; and if he desired Paradise as he desires this world, he would win it altogether.
(Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz)

• Remember, young lady: your beauty is free and unfettered save by two bonds, each of them more beautiful than it: chastity and honor!
(Ahmad Shawqi)

• The fool stands in the front row so that he may see; but the wise man tucks himself away at the back so that people may not see him!
(Carmen Sylva)

• The kiss of lovers is like honey; the kiss of the betrothed is like fruit; and the kiss of husband and wife is like bread. The first is always desired, the second always bestowed, and the third always natural!
(Lamartine)

• It is to poverty's honor that you will find no one who disobeys God in order to become poor; rather, a man most often disobeys in order to grow rich!
(al-Ahnaf)

• Life is not complete unless its youth is spent in feeling, its manhood in struggle, and its later years in contemplation!
(Gustave Le Bon)

• If you cannot look before you, because your future is dark, nor behind you, because your past is painful, then lift your eyes upward and you will find rest and peace!
(Rousseau)