Tahar Ben Jelloun

This universe can very well be expressed in words and syllables which are not those of one's mother tongue. ↗

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

#mother #mother tongue #syllables #those #tongue

To lead a country, you must periodically hold a national consultation in which people representing different programmes can make a bid for power. ↗

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

#consultation #country #different #hold #lead

We do not have many intellectuals who can speak out for us internationally. We have no writers who are recognized, respected and loved outside the Arab world. ↗

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

#arab world #intellectuals #internationally #loved #many

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

#because #bottom #generalized #intellectuals #international

We must stop posing as victims of the West and behaving negatively towards the West. We must participate with the West on an equal footing in the reconstruction of the world. ↗

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

#equal #footing #must #negatively #participate

What have we achieved since the end of the Second World War? We have allowed petty, bourgeois regimes in which everything is average, mediocre. ↗

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

#allowed #average #bourgeois #end #everything

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

#artists #creative #field #hard #herd

Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare - and precious as a pearl. ↗

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

#friendship #like #pearl #poetry #precious

The mistake we make is to attribute to religions the errors and fanaticism of human beings. ↗

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

#beings #errors #fanaticism #human #human beings

Egypt has suffered more ordeals than the other countries to get where it is. ↗

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

#egypt #get #more #other #other countries