• 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)
We set down below the address delivered by Miss Alexandra Thabet, director of the Red Cross dispensary (formerly the Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah dispensary) in Musaytbeh, on the occasion of the dispensary's annexation to the Lebanese Red Cross, in the presence of the wife of His Excellency the President, the president of the central society, Mrs. de Freige, and a number of distinguished ladies:
Madam First Lady of Lebanon, Madam President of the Lebanese Red Cross, Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a happy day to see the First Lady of Lebanon, together with the president of the Lebanese Red Cross organization and the ladies who assist her, gathered here today with the respected doctors on the occasion of the annexation of this dispensary to the Lebanese Red Cross organization.
Truly it is a beautiful gesture that the efforts of Lebanese ladies should join hands with the zeal of Lebanese doctors to save the life of the poor, wretched patient.
Welcome, then, to ladies whom the country has known as a mainstay of the greatest charitable works.
Here, ladies and gentlemen, is a brief word on the founding of this dispensary and its work from its beginning to this day.
In 1943, while the flames of war still blazed, the ladies' society of Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah resolved to take up an important side
of social affairs, namely, concern for the health of the poor patient who is unable to treat his illness because he is taken up with what is, for him, more important still — earning bread for his family. They believed that this poor patient has a right to life like every able member of the nation who can look after himself, so they resolved to open a dispensary, and they appointed me to direct it. I hesitated at first, because of my ignorance of the art of nursing and of what duty toward the sick requires — even though I had formerly directed a boarding school; but the difference between the one and the other is vast.
I was encouraged by the ladies' confidence in me, and by my belief that any work done with sincerity and energy brings good results; so I accepted the responsibility, and I set before my eyes hard work and tenderness toward the poor. I went forward with all boldness, leaning upon my brothers the doctors whom the society had appointed, and great was my fortune, and the dispensary's fortune, in cooperating with them toward the desired goal. It gives me pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, to pay tribute to these doctors for the zeal, energy, and devotion they have shown toward this dispensary during three consecutive years, in which they worked without recompense — not only keeping with all punctuality the hours they had donated, but standing ready to serve at any time. Often we would call on them to work