Mahmoud Quotes & Sayings

The days are gone when a country can issue orders to other peoples. Today, mankind needs culture, ideas and logic. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

We desire an expansion of relations with regional states and the establishment of extensive public contacts. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Can one be a follower of Jesus Christ ... and have countries attacked. The lives, reputations and possessions of people destroyed and on the slight chance of the presence of a few criminals in a village, city, or convoy for example, the entire village, city or convoy set ablaze. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

We are posing two very clear questions. The first is: Did the Holocaust actually take place? You answer this question in the affirmative. So, the second question is: Whose fault was it? The answer to that has to be found in Europe and not in Palestine. It is perfectly clear: If the Holocaust took place in Europe, one also has to find the answer to it in Europe. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

If the Holocaust didn't take place, why then did this regime of occupation come about? Why do the European countries commit themselves to defending this regime? Permit me to make one more point. We are of the opinion that, if an historical occurrence conforms to the truth, this truth will be revealed all the more clearly if there is more research into it and more discussion about it. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

The United States' administrations ... must recognize that Iran is a big power. Having said that, we consider ourselves to be a human force and a cultural power and hence a friend of other nations. We have never sought to dominate others or to violate the rights of any other country. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

If a technology is beneficial, everyone should have it. If it is not, no one should have it. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, Their Oil would become Tears. — Mahmoud Darwish

Poetry and beauty are always making peace. When you read something beautiful you find coexistence; it breaks walls down. — Mahmoud Darwish

Far away, our dreams have nothing to do with what we do. The wind carries the night, and passes on, aimless. — Mahmoud Darwish

Longing is the call of ney to ney to restore the direction broken by the horses' hooves in a military campaign. It is an intermittent ailment, neither contagious nor lethal, even when it takes the form of an epidemic. It is an invitation to stay up late with the lonesome and an excuse not to be on equal footing with train passengers who know their own addresses well. It is the transparent fabric of that beautiful nothingness, gathered to roast the coffee of wakefulness for the dreams of strangers. — Mahmoud Darwish

I know who opens the door to the jasmine tree
as it makes our dreams blossom for the evening's guests. — Mahmoud Darwish

I see what I want of Love ... I see horses making the meadow dance, fifty guitars sighing, and a swarm of bees suckling the wild berries, and I close my eyes until I see our shadow behind this dispossessed place ...
I see what I want of people: their desire to long for anything, their lateness in getting to work and their hurry to return to their folk ... and their need to say: Good Morning ... — Mahmoud Darwish

The not-visibly-insane Democrats all claim they'll get rough with the terrorists, but they can't even face Brit Hume. In case you missed this profile in Democrat machismo, the Democratic presidential candidates are refusing to participate in a debate hosted by Fox News Channel because the hosts are "biased." But they'll face down Mahmoud Ahmadinejad! At this, even Hillary Clinton was thinking, "Come on, guys let's grow a pair. — Ann Coulter

Western media only intensified the climate of fear and insecurity — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

It would be the simplest thing to say, my homeland is where I was born. But when you returned, you found nothing. What does that mean? It would be the simplest thing to say, my homeland is where I will die. But you could die anywhere, or on the border between two places. What does that mean? After a while the question will become harder. Why did you leave? Why did you leave? For twenty years you have been asking, why did they leave? Leaving is not a negation of the homeland, but it does turn the problem into a question. Do not write a history now. When you do that, you leave the past behind, and what is required is to call the past to account. Do not write a history except that of your wounds. Do not write a history except that of your exile. You are here - here, where you were born. And where longing will lead you to death. So, what is homeland? — Mahmoud Darwish

The world is in need of an encompassing and of course, just and humane order in the light of which the rights of all are preserved and peace and security are safeguarded. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Five million Palestinians have not had a home for 60 years. It is amazing really: You have been paying reparations for the Holocaust for 60 years and will have to keep paying up for another 100 years. Why then is the fate of the Palestinians no issue here? — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

The stars had only one task: they taught me how to read.
They taught me I had a language in heaven
and another language on earth. — Mahmoud Darwish

Our nation is today a powerful nation. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Our dear Imam said that the occupying regime [Israel] must be wiped off the map ... We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine ... I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

For this reason, the expansion of relations with all countries is on the agenda of the Islamic Republic of Iran. I mean balanced relationships, based on mutual respect and observation of each other's rights. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

To Mahmoud, Harshaw looked like a museum exhibit of what he thought of as a "Yank" - vulgar, dressed too informally for the occasion, loud, probably ignorant and almost certainly provincial. A professional man, too, which made it worse, as in Dr. Mahmoud's experience most American professional men were under-educated and narrow, mere technicians. — Robert A. Heinlein

The little jihad is over, and now we have the bigger jihad - the bigger battle is achieving security and economic growth — Mahmoud Abbas

Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? You should know that this slogan, this goal, can certainly be achieved. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

I love women whose hidden desires make horses put an end to their lives at the threshold — Mahmoud Darwish

People should have freedom in their pilgrimages and tours. They should come and visit historical monuments and sites - let's say the sites around Iran - where they can easily engage in wide- scale contacts with others. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

By unleashing an active diplomacy on its nuclear activities, Iran has effectively neutralized the European and US policies,. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

If the method is able to liberate our land, to liberate our people from Israeli jails, to reconstruct what was destroyed by the long-standing Israeli occupation, at that time we can discuss. — Mahmoud Al-Zahar

I know that DER SPIEGEL is a respected magazine. But I don't know whether it is possible for you to publish the truth about the Holocaust. Are you permitted to write everything about it? — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

His joy was somewhat sullied by immediate awareness that his brother did not fully share it . . . in truth, he seemed more distressed than was possible save in one about to discorporate because of some shameful lack or failure. But Smith had already learned that these creatures, so much like himself in some ways, could endure emotions dreadful to contemplate and still not die. His Brother Mahmoud underwent a spiritual agony five times daily and not only did not die but had urged the agony on him as a needful thing. His Brother Captain van Tromp suffered terrifying spasms unpredictably, any one of which should have, by Smith's standards, produced immediate discorporation to end the conflict - yet that brother was still corporate so far as he knew. — Robert A. Heinlein

I love you so, you are so much yourself!
He is so afraid of his soul:
no "I" now but she. She is now within me.
And no "she" now but only my fragile "I"
At the end of this song, how much I fear that my dream
may not see its dream in her. — Mahmoud Darwish

We believe that visa quotas should be lifted and people should visit anywhere they wish freely. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Everyone must learn from the past. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

I prepare my portrait for my woman to hang on a wall when I die.
she says: Is there a wall to hang it on?
I say: We'll build a room for it. Where? In any house. — Mahmoud Darwish

I want to find a language that transforms language itself into steel for the spirit
a language to use against these sparkling insects, these jets. — Mahmoud Darwish

When the image is identical to reality, the imagination is compelled to be neutral. Therefore let the image of the object lie to the object so we can see what lies beyond the object, and in the light of that vision see what saves us from nothingness. — Mahmoud Darwish

All peoples are fed up with the American government. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

We ask the West to remove what they created sixty years ago [Israel] and if they do not listen to our recommendations, then the Palestinian nation and other nations will eventually do this for them. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

We have lost a very important religious figure who dedicated his life to peace and justice for all. [on the death of Pope John Paul II — Mahmoud Abbas

How often have I held back my complaint: Why should the Lebanese homeland be incompatible with Palestine? Why should the Egyptian loaf be incompatible with Palestine? Why should the Syrian roof be incompatible with Palestine? Why should Palestine be incompatible with Palestine? — Mahmoud Darwish

No country in the world looks upon America as a friend. When the U.S. is mentioned, people are reminded of war, aggression and bloodshed, and that's not a good thing. In other words, the American people are paying for something they don't believe in. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Every beautiful poem is an act of resistance, — Mahmoud Darwish

A poet need not trouble himself if he lies. He lies only in the matter of love, as the regions of the heart are open to tempting conquest. — Mahmoud Darwish

The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but by how he says it. — Mahmoud Darwish

The mercy bullet
I envy horses: if they break a leg and feel humiliated because they can no longer charge back and forth in the wind, they are cured by a mercy bullet. So if something in me gets broken, physically or spiritually, I would do well to look for a proficient killer, even if he is one of my enemies. I will pay him a fee and the price of the bullet, kiss his hand and his revolver, and if I am able to write, extol him in a poem of rare beauty, for which he can choose the metre and rhyme. — Mahmoud Darwish

The image of love reveals itself there; in a profoundly present absence. — Mahmoud Darwish

A bit of mist and light suffice for life to overpower nothingness. A bit of hope and time suffice for you to cross the mountain trails of myth; you were spared the fate of your ancestors. So borrow the wisdom of the anemones and say: Nothingness does not concern me, even if death besieges me. — Mahmoud Darwish

Death to Israel! Death to Israel! — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

And if happiness should surprise you again, do not mention its previous betrayal.
Enter into the happiness, and burst. — Mahmoud Darwish

I never wanted children; maybe I'm afraid of responsibility. — Mahmoud Darwish

I can certainly put myself in Israel's shoes. They are humans just like we are. They want peace and security inside their borders. — Mahmoud Abbas

The long road has drained me of all feelings and expectations. I don't feel a thing or expect anything now. — Mahmoud Darwish

No state on earth can afford to allow several authorities to co-exist next to one another. — Mahmoud Abbas

I do hope that all nations can live in complete security and welfare. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Of course what is talked about in the U.N. General Assembly is very important. Officials, the leaders of nations, appear there to speak of the most important topics - what they perceive to be the most important topics. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

I'm not in charge of judgments in Iran. The judicial system in Iran is an independent body of its own, and it follows the laws, and it must operate according to the law. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

She drew away
from her shadow,so lightening would pass between the two
like a stranger passes through his poem — Mahmoud Darwish

We had principles in mathematics that were granted to be absolute in mathematics for over 800 years, but new science has gotten rid of those absolutism, gotten forward other different logics of looking at mathematics, and sort of turned the way we look at it as a science altogether after 800 years. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Don't Latin Americans have the right to ask why their elected governments are being opposed and coup leaders supported? Poverty and hardship in large parts of Africa are preventing this from happening. Don't they have the right to ask why their enormous wealth - including minerals - is being looted, despite the fact that they need it more than others? — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

I'll search in mythology and archeology
and in every -ology to my old name.
one of the goddesses of Canaan will side with me,
then swear with a flash of lightning.
This is my orphan son — Mahmoud Darwish

Poetry is perhaps what teaches us to nurture the charming illusion: how to be reborn out of ourselves over and over again, and use words to construct a better world, a fictitious world that enables us to sign a pact for a permanent and comprehensive peace ... with life. — Mahmoud Darwish

Cooperation and collaboration among nations and countries can help in the process of development of promoting welfare as well as bringing peace and stability. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Without hope we are lost. — Mahmoud Darwish

Today too, the most important issue in the world is Palestine. If a war breaks out in Iraq, we believe it is due to the provocation of the Zionists. If it happens in Afghanistan, it is because of their provocation. If Sudan is oppressed, it is due to Zionist seduction. We consider all the arrogant, colonialist schemes to be inspired by the Zionists. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

A partnership was established between Hitler's Nazis and the leadership of the Zionist movement ... [the Zionists] gave permission to every racist in the world, led by Hitler and the Nazis, to treat Jews as they wish, so long as it guarantees immigration to Palestine. — Mahmoud Abbas

We are captives, even if our wheat grows over the fences/ and swallows rise from our broken chains./ We are captives of what we love, what we desire, and what we are. — Mahmoud Darwish

If some want to misuse the generosity of our nation, and re-examine what was previously examined, they should know the fire of the anger of the Iranian nation will be extremely burning and devastating. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

I see a bird carrying me and carrying you, with us as its wings, beyond the dream, to a journey that has no end and no beginning, no purpose and no goal. I do not speak to you, and you do not speak to me; we listen only to the music of silence. Silence is the friend's trust of friend, imagination's self-confidence between rain and rainbow.
A rainbow is inspiration provoking the poet, uninvited, the infatuation of the poet with the prose of the Quran.
Which of your Lord's blessings do you disown?
We are absent, you and I; we are present, you and I.
And absent.
Which of your Lord's blessings do you disown? — Mahmoud Darwish

We have a relationship with Syria, an old relationship. We also have good relations with the people of Syria, with all segments of the population. This is the situation as well in Iraq and other countries. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Sometimes I feel as if I am read before I write. When I write a poem about my mother, Palestinians think my mother is a symbol for Palestine. But I write as a poet, and my mother is my mother. She's not a symbol. — Mahmoud Darwish

The use of nuclear weapons is Iran's right. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Exile is more than a geographical concept. You can be an exile in your homeland, in your own house, in a room. — Mahmoud Darwish

We will convert the entire world to Islam with our logic. We are confident that the Islamic logic, culture, and discourse can prove their superiority in all fields over all schools of thought and theories. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Aggression, occupation and a repetition of the Holocaust won't bring peace. What we want is a sustainable peace. This means that we have to tackle the root of the problem. I am pleased to note that you are honest people and admit that you are obliged to support the Zionists. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Perhaps death is a metaphor to remind us of a secret of life we failed to notice. — Mahmoud Darwish

Iran's strong logic and firm diplomacy is the guideline for all government officials in negotiations on country's peaceful nuclear program with foreigners, quite resolutely. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

You, who only know love when in love, do not ask what it is, nor do you look for it. But when a woman once asked you if you were in love with love itself, you were evasive and escaped by answering: I love you. She persisted: Do you not love love? You said: I love you, because of you. She left you, because you could not be trusted with her absence. Love is not an idea. It is an emotion that can cool down or heat up. It comes and goes. It is an embodied feeling and has five, or more, senses. Sometimes it appears as an angel with delicate wings that can uproot us from the earth. Sometimes it charges at us like a bull, hurls us to the ground, and walks away. At other times it is a storm we only recognize in its devastating aftermath. Sometimes it falls upon us like the night dew when a magical hand milks a wandering cloud. — Mahmoud Darwish

Fortunately, Iranians are politically active worldwide. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

We do not need an atomic bomb. The Iranian nation is wise. It won't build two atomic bombs while you have 20,000 warheads. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Don't say that poetry, my friend, is beautiful
or powerful
for there is no powerful or beautiful poetry
There is poetry that strikes you, secretly
with the diseases of writing and schizophrenia, and you rave
and your self leaves you for another — Mahmoud Darwish

There is no doubt that the new wave [of attacks] in Palestine will wipe off this stigma [Israel] from the face of the Islamic world. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

I left him and took myself off, having become certain about a fact which was later on to cost me much peace of mind: that in one form or another I was in love with Hosna Bint Mahmoud, the widow of Mustafa Sa'eed, and that I - like him and Wad Rayyes and millions of others - was not immune from the germ of contagion that oozes from the body of the universe. — Tayeb Salih

The poem is in my hands, and can run stories through her hands. — Mahmoud Darwish

We have on this earth what makes life worth living: April's hesitation, the aroma of bread at dawn, a woman's point of view about men, the works of Aeschylus, the beginning of love, grass on a stone, mothers living on a flute's sigh and the invaders' fear of memories. — Mahmoud Darwish

This peace will leave us as a cluster of dust ... — Mahmoud Darwish

I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet. — Mahmoud Darwish

No one places any trust in the words of the Americans. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

The Cold War philosophy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), which prevented the former Soviet Union and the United States from using the nuclear weapons they had targeted at each other, would not apply to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran. For him (Ahmadinejad), Mutual Assured Destruction is not a deterrent, it is an inducement. — Bernard Lewis

The only paradise we know through our senses and intuition is that of the beloved, and the only hell, disappointment in love. — Mahmoud Darwish

Teresa blames herself for believing that she was indispensable to Mahmoud. Pride goeth before a fall. — Ann-Marie MacDonald

The core issue here is that the Israeli government refuses to commit to terms of reference for the negotiations that are based on international law and United Nations resolutions, and that it frantically continues to intensify building of settlements on the territory of the State of Palestine. — Mahmoud Abbas

Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned and this regime is on its way to annihilation. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

The best world is one in which all countries cooperate with one another to kind of meet each other's needs and be partners in the process. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

The Palestinians are the only nation in the world that feels with certainty that today is better than what the days ahead will hold. Tomorrow always heralds a worse situation. — Mahmoud Darwish

If you live, live free
or die like the trees, standing up. — Mahmoud Darwish

May poetry and God's name have mercy on us! — Mahmoud Darwish

Those who insist on having hostilities with us, kill and destroy the option of friendship with us in the future, which is unfortunate because it is clear the future belongs to Iran and that enmities will be fruitless. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a
single word: Home. — Mahmoud Darwish

They want time to move fast so they can paint their nails a provocative red and wear high heels that crack walnuts and make people jump. He wants time to slow down so he can prolong the enjoyment of walking among them, of being next to this self-contained beauty. — Mahmoud Darwish