58+ Naguib Mahfouz Quotes (Fiction, Politics And Satire)

Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian novelist who was born in 1911 and died in 2006. He was a pioneering writer in the Arab world, and was the first Arab to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. His most famous works include The Cairo Trilogy and the novel Children of Gebelawi.

Top 10 Naguib Mahfouz Quotes

1. You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
2. It's a most distressing affliction to have a sentimental heart and a skeptical mind.
3. I found myself in a sea in which the waves of joy and sorrow were clashing against each other.
4. The real malady is fear of life, not of death
5. Nothing records the effects of a sad life so graphically as the human body.
6. The Arab world also won the Nobel with me. I believe that international doors have opened, and that from now on, literate people will consider Arab literature also. We deserve that recognition.
7. There are no heroes in most of my stories. I look at our society with a critical eye and find nothing extraordinary in the people I see.
8. If life has no meaning, why don't we create a meaning for it?
9. Art is a criticism of society and life, and I believe that if life became perfect, art would be meaningless and cease to exist.
10. At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.

Naguib Mahfouz Short Quotes

• Only the poor are handicapped by honor.
• The Koran and the laws of all civilized nations legislate against the vilification of religions.
• I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised.
• Without literature my life would be miserable.
• Fear does not prevent death. It prevents life.
• I am practically in the employ of Mr. Nobel. I have to meet everyone he sends my way.
• In the calculus of good deeds you have the most to gain.
• The heart is a place of secrets.
• You know what I'm afraid of? That God is sick of us.
• Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization.

Naguib Mahfouz Famous Quotes And Sayings

As for life's tragedies, our love will defeat them. Love is the most effective cure. In the crevices of disasters, happiness lies like a diamond in a mind, so let us instill in ourselves the wisdom of love. — Naguib Mahfouz

Writing is for men who can think and feel, not mindless sensation seekers out of nightclubs and bars. But these are bad times. We are condemned to work with upstarts, clowns who no doubt got their training in a circus and then turned to journalism as the appropriate place to display their tricks. — Naguib Mahfouz

An allegory is not meant to be taken literally. There is a great lack of comprehension on the part of some readers. — Naguib Mahfouz

For the first time in my life, I felt that a wave, a justice was sweeping away a deep-seated decay without any indulgence. I dearly wished that it would keep going without hesitation or deviation, in a spirit of purity forever. — Naguib Mahfouz

When will the state of the country be sound?... When its people believe that the end result of cowardice is more disastrous than that of behaving with integrity. — Naguib Mahfouz

Freedom of expression must be considered sacred and thought can only be corrected by counter thought. — Naguib Mahfouz

I was suffering from a peculiar and persistent sense that I was being pursued, and also the conviction that under the political order of the times, our lives had no meaning. — Naguib Mahfouz

paraphrasing.."Science is the language of the intellect of society. Art is language of the entire human personality. — Naguib Mahfouz

I was afraid of marriage. I had the impression married life would take up all my time. I saw myself drowning in visits and parties. No freedom. — Naguib Mahfouz

We used the Western style to express our own themes and stories. But don't forget that our heritage includes The Thousand and One Nights. — Naguib Mahfouz

Hosni Mubarak... his constitution is not democratic, but he is democratic. We can voice our opinions now. The press is free. — Naguib Mahfouz

My countrymen have the right to shake my hand and talk to me if they so wish. Don't forget that their support and their reading of my works is what brought me the Nobel prize. — Naguib Mahfouz

The Nobel Prize has given me, for the first time in my life, the feeling that my literature could be appreciated on an international level. — Naguib Mahfouz

We are passing through a very sensitive time, and on the whole, this country is facing very big problems. — Naguib Mahfouz

Winning Nobel imposed on me a lifestyle to which I am not used and which I would not have preferred. — Naguib Mahfouz

A priest's life is spent between question and answer-- or between a question and the attempt to answer it. The question is the summary of the spiritual life. — Naguib Mahfouz

I started writing while I was a little boy. Maybe it's because I was reading a lot of books I admired, and thought that I would like to write something like that someday. Also, my love for good writing pushed me. — Naguib Mahfouz

We wont develop until we accept that reading is a vital necessity. — Naguib Mahfouz

It's not surprising that truly humanitarian manifestos originate frequently in minority circles or with people whose consciences are troubled by the problems of minorities. — Naguib Mahfouz

He seemed to be waiting for a miracle to save him from the depths his life had reached and take him to a land of dreams. — Naguib Mahfouz

I wake up early in the morning and walk for an hour. If I have something to write, I prefer to write in the morning until midday, and in the afternoon, I eat. — Naguib Mahfouz

Visit me once each year, for it's wrong to abandon people forever. — Naguib Mahfouz

I have condemned Khomeini's fatwa to kill Salman Rushdie as a breach of international relations and as an assault on Islam as we know it in the era of apostasy. I believe that the wrong done by Khomeini towards Islam and the Muslims is no less than that done by the author himself. As regards freedom of expression, I have said that it must be considered sacred and that thought can only be corrected by counter-thought. During the debate, I supported the boycott of the book as a means of maintaining social peace, granted that such a decision would not be used as a pretext to constrain thought. — Naguib Mahfouz

I consider Khomeini's position dangerous. He does not have the right to pass judgment-that is not the Islamic way. — Naguib Mahfouz

Madness is the acme of intelligence. — Naguib Mahfouz

I believe in life and in people. I feel obliged to advocate their highest ideals as long as I believe them to be true. I also see myself compelled to revolt against ideals I believe to be false, since recoiling from rebellion would be a form of treason — Naguib Mahfouz

The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problems. — Naguib Mahfouz

Home is not where you were born; home is where all your attempts to escape cease. — Naguib Mahfouz

Excessive concern with religion seems to me a last resort for people who have been exhausted by life. — Naguib Mahfouz

If the urge to write should ever leave me, I want that day to be my last. — Naguib Mahfouz

When you spend time with your friends, what do you talk about? Those things which made an impression on you that day, that week ... I write stories the same way. Events at home, in school, at work, in the street, these are the bases for a story. Some experiences leave such a deep impression that instead of talking about them at the club I work them into a novel. — Naguib Mahfouz

"Death by love is fairer by far than death by illness", said Amenhotep III. — Naguib Mahfouz

The writer interweaves a story with his own doubts, questions, and values. That is art. — Naguib Mahfouz

The calendar has a magic that makes us imagine a memory can be resurrected and revived, but nothing returns. — Naguib Mahfouz

I am the son of two civilizations that at a certain age in history have formed a happy marriage. The first of these, seven thousand years old, is the Pharaonic civilization; the second, one thousand four hundred years old, is the Islamic civilization. — Naguib Mahfouz

I believe society has a right to defend itself, just as the individual has the right to attack that with which he disagrees. — Naguib Mahfouz

Happy is he who can give himself up. — Naguib Mahfouz

Literature should be more revolutionary than revolutions themselves; writers must find the means to continue to be critical of the negative elements in the sociopolitical reality. — Naguib Mahfouz

Life Lessons by Naguib Mahfouz

1. Naguib Mahfouz teaches us to appreciate the beauty of life and to find joy in the little things. He encourages us to be open-minded and to learn from our mistakes, as well as to be compassionate and understanding towards others.
2. He also reminds us to be humble and to accept our limitations, and to strive for excellence in all that we do. He encourages us to be courageous and to take risks, and to never give up on our dreams.
3. Finally, Mahfouz reminds us to be kind and generous to those around us, and to never forget our roots. He teaches us to be grateful for the blessings we have, and to always strive to make the world a better place.