mrsgiraffey

[mrsgiraffey]

"No fight is hopeless till it has been fought."

– A Feast for Crows, George R. R. Martin

[mrsgiraffey]

"Noble words, but words were easy. Deeds were hard."

– A Feast for Crows, George R. R. Martin

[mrsgiraffey]

"ভয়–ভয়! ভালবাসা মানেই ভয়।"

– বকুল কথা, আশাপূর্ণা দেবী।

[mrsgiraffey]

"বুকভরা নিঃশ্বাস নেবার মতো বাতাস থাকলে কি কেউ ভাবতে বসে কে কবে কোথায় বাতাসের অভাবে দম আটকে মরেছে?"

– বকুল কথা, আশাপূর্ণা দেবী।

Why do we take things for granted?

[mrsgiraffey]

"Oh , if only I were alone and no one loved me and I too had never loved anyone!"

— Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky

[mrsgiraffey]

"নারীর মন বিচিত্র। তাহাদের মনস্তত্ত্বও অদ্ভূত। সে সম্বন্ধে চট্ করিয়া কোন মন্তব্য করা উচিত মনে করি না। বস্তুত স্ত্রী-জাতির সম্বন্ধে কোন-কিছু মন্তব্য করাই দুঃসাহসের কার্য।"

—সুলেখার ক্রন্দন, বনফুল।

[mrsgiraffey]

"Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside.

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace. When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you with hold the "aye."

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unclaimed.

when you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also. For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."

—The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran

[mrsgiraffey]

"And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields."

—The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran

[mrsgiraffey]

"Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral."

—The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran

[mrsgiraffey]

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?"

—The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran

[mrsgiraffey]

"Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of to-morrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday."

—The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran

[mrsgiraffey]

"Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips."

— The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran

[mrsgiraffey]

"How shall I go in peace and without sorrow? Nay, not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city.

Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?

Too many fragments of the spirit have I scattered in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache.

It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin I tear with my own hands.

Nor is it a thought I leave behind me, but a heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst.

Yet I cannot tarry longer.

The sea that calls all things unto her calls me, and I must embark.

For to stay, though the hours burn in the night, is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a mould."

— The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran

This is exactly how I felt before leaving Sylhet. Even the children mentioned in it resembled my students who I loved so dearly. I don't think it could be put in better words.

[mrsgiraffey]

"Is it not amazing, Puggly dear, that whenever we begin to congratulate ourselves on the breadth of our knowledge of the world, we discover that there are multitudes of people, in every corner of the earth, who have seen vastly more than we can ever hope to?"

– River of Smoke, Amitav Ghosh

[mrsgiraffey]

"Bahram nodded. ‘Democracy is a wonderful thing, Mr Burnham,’ he said wistfully.

‘It is a marvellous tamasha that keeps the common people busy so that men like ourselves can take care of all matters of importance."

– River of Smoke, Amitav Ghosh

[mrsgiraffey]

"The pain passes, but the beauty remains."

–Pierre-Auguste Renoir

"রেনোয়া একবার সাইকেল থেকে পড়ে গিয়েছিলেন, তার থেকে আর্থ্রাইটিস আর প্রচণ্ড বাত হয়ে যায়। ডান হাত নাড়তে পারতেন না ভালো করে। কিন্তু ছবি আঁকার নেশা ছাড়তে পারেননি কিছুতেই। আঙুল অচল, তবু ডান হাতে একটা ব্রাস বেঁধে নিয়ে আঁকতেন ছবি, যন্ত্রণায় তাঁর মুখ কুঁকড়ে যেত, তবু থামতেন না। একবার নাকি একজন কে বলেছিলেন, যথেষ্ট তো হয়েছে, অনেক ছবি রেখে যাচ্ছেন। এখন এত কষ্ট পাচ্ছেন, আর আঁকার কী দরকার?

রেনোয়া এর উত্তরে বলেছিলেন, সব যন্ত্রণাই এক সময় শেষ হয়ে যায়, কিন্তু শিল্প থাকে।"

–ছবির দেশে, কবিতার দেশে, সুনীল গঙ্গোপাধ্যায়।

[mrsgiraffey]

"অপর্ণার সঙ্গে আর কোনওদিন দেখা হবে না। সেই বিচ্ছেদের শূন্যতা যে এতখানি, আগে টের পাইনি তো!"

—অর্ধেক জীবন, সুনীল গঙ্গোপাধ্যায়।