"Taking the line of least resistance, we lump……" — Amin Maalouf
"Taking the line of least resistance, we lump the most different people together under the same heading. Taking the line of least resistance, we ascribe to them collective crimes, collective acts and opinions. "The Serbs have massacred…", "The English have devastated…", "The Jews have confiscated…", "The Blacks have torched", "The Arabs refuse…". We blithely express sweeping judgments on whole peoples, calling them "hardworking" and "ingenious", or "lazy", "touchy", "sly", "proud", or "obstinate". And sometimes this ends in bloodshed." – Amin Maalouf "On Identity"
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Amin Maalouf
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25 Quotes by Amin Maalouf
Amin Maalouf has 25 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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The identity cannot be compartmentalized; it cannot be split in halves or thirds, nor have any clearly defined set of…
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Never hesitate to go far away, beyond all seas, all frontiers, all countries, all beliefs.
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All pleasures must be paid for, do not despise those that state their price.
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Doctrines are meant to serve man, not the other way around.
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During my youth, the idea of moving from Lebanon was unthinkable. Then I began to realise I might have to…
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I come from no country, from no city, no tribe. I am the son of the road... all tongues and…
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I am the son of the road , my country is a caravan and my life is the most unexpected…
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A life spent writing has taught me to be wary of words. Those that seem clearest are often the most…
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What makes me myself rather than anyone else is the very fact that I am poised between two countries, two…
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Every individual is a meeting ground for many different allegiances, and sometimes these loyalties conflict with one another and confront…
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For it is often the way we look at other people that imprisons them within their own narrowest allegiances. And…
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Isn't it a characteristic of the age we live in that it has made everyone in a way a migrant…
See all 25 quotes by Amin Maalouf »
More Acts Quotes
This quote is filed under Acts Quotes,
one of 1,679 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of living well, which all men desire; all…
— Hannah Arendt
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Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate…
— Aristotle
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The act of dying is one of the acts of life.
— Marcus Aurelius
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Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.
— Teresa of Avila
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What matters is to live in the present, live now, for every moment is now. It is your thoughts and…
— Sai Baba
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We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs.…
— Philip James Bailey
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A speculator is a man who observes the future, and acts before it occurs.
— Bernard Baruch
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Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a…
— Joseph Addison
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The real 'action' in the liturgy in which we are all supposed to participate is the action of God himself.…
— Pope Benedict XVI
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Every individual acts and suffers in accordance with his peculiar teleology, which has all the inevitability of fate, so long…
— Alfred Adler
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He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
— William Blake
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Most recently, terrorist forces have captured Israeli soldiers and fired rockets into Israeli cities - both unprovoked. These acts of…
— John Boehner
See all 1,679 Acts Quotes »