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All Tahar Ben Jelloun Quotes
Intellectuals try to keep going. But their situation is very difficult. Those who have had the courage to voice their opposition have often paid a very high price.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
62% of people like this quote
I don't feel guilty about expressing myself in French; nor do I feel that I am continuing the work of the colonizers.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
59% of people like this quote
People must insist on the right to say no, to be alone, to stand out from the herd. Creative artists can say all this in their own way and in their own field, by hard, rigorous work.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
59% of people like this quote
The world does not look to us in the Arab world out of a healthy desire for knowledge.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
57% of people like this quote
A modern civilization is only possible when it is accepted that singular beings exist and express themselves freely.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
57% of people like this quote
I came to poetry through the urgent need to denounce injustice, exploitation, humiliation. I know that's not enough to change the world. But to remain silent would have been a kind of intolerable complicity.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
57% of people like this quote
My characters are driven by a passionate desire for justice. They are rebellious and incorruptible.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
56% of people like this quote
Egypt has suffered more ordeals than the other countries to get where it is.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
56% of people like this quote
My sensibility steers me toward writers who are out on their own.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
56% of people like this quote
We have no Arab intellectuals of international stature because we live in a state of generalized mediocrity. We are suspended in the pit without touching the bottom.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
55% of people like this quote
We must have our say, not through violence, aggression or fear. We must speak out calmly and forcefully. We shall only be able to enter the new world era if we agree to engage in dialogue with the other side.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
55% of people like this quote
I love life in spite of all that mars it. I love friendship, jokes and laughter.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
55% of people like this quote
Poetry is not only a set of words which are chosen to relate to each other; it is something which goes much further than that to provide a glimpse of our vision of the world.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
54% of people like this quote
New ideas should confront old ideas. We must refer to the example of Europe. People have fought to make Europe what it is today. Freedom is not something that is served up on a plate.
Tahar Ben Jelloun
54% of people like this quote
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