Ruby Manougian

“Playing the victim role: Manipulator portrays him- or herself as a victim of circumstance or of someone else's behavior in order to gain pity, sympathy or evoke compassion and thereby get something from another. Caring and conscientious people cannot stand to see anyone suffering and the manipulator often finds it easy to play on sympathy to get cooperation.”
― George K. Simon Jr., In Sheep's Clothing: Understanding and Dealing With Manipulative People

“لا أعتقد أننا كنا جميعًا على استعداد للموت من أجل قضية عادلة، حتى في سن الثامنة عشر. و لكن تلك المعضلة لم تفارق أذهاننا ولا مناقشاتنا. أسنمضي حياتنا بأكملها، و في كل الأحوال شبابنا، بدون أن تسنح لنا فرصة الإنخراط بملء جوارحنا في معركة تستحق النضال؟ أهناك من حولنا قضية عادلة، يدافع عنها البشر الأنقياء، أو على الأقل الجديرون بالثقة؟ كنت أشك بذلك.”
― أمين معلوف , التائهون

“We should call on the Creator to show more modesty. He created the world in a frenzy of excitement. Instead of revising his rough drafts, he had his work printed straightaway. What a lot of contradictions there are in it. What a log of typing errors, inconsistencies in the plot, passages that are too long and wordy, characters that are entirely superfluous. But it is painful and difficult to cut and trim the living cloth of a book written and published in too much of a hurry”
― Vasily Grossman, An Armenian Sketchbook

“(The French psychoanalyst Lacan suggested that the Christian injunction ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’ must be ironic because people hate themselves.)”
― Adam Phillips, On Kindness