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Quotes by Algerian Authors
"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."
"Peace does not include a vendetta; there will be neither winners nor losers."
"In two years, there were 22 military coups d'etat, essentially in Africa and the third world. The coup d'etat of Algiers, in 1965, is what opened the path."
"Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance."
"Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering."
"Oh Lord, give me chastity, but do not give it yet."
"With my government, we engaged in bringing our help to fights for national freedom. At that precise moment, several countries were still colonised or had barely overcome colonisation. This was the case in practically all of Africa. We supported them."
"Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you."
"To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it."
"Everywhere that the struggle for national freedom has triumphed, once the authorities agreed, there were military coups d'etat that overthrew their leaders. That is the result time and time again."
"If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don't accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept because you will gain one friend."
"He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent."
"It is obvious that taking the country from a state of war to being a lawful state won't be easy."
"O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams."
"In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?"
"When you go from one place to another, you go with experience, you don't go with prescriptions."
"Only when you are lost can love find itself in you without losing its way."
"I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him."
"It also seems that the Afghans themselves want to avail themselves of this opportunity and all recognize that the UN is uniquely qualified to help bring them together."
"In the globalized world that is ours, maybe we are moving towards a global village, but that global village brings in a lot of different people, a lot of different ideas, lots of different backgrounds, lots of different aspirations."
"The events of September 11 and what has happened since have made people understand that even a small, distant and far away country like Afghanistan cannot be left to break up into anarchy and chaos without consequences for the whole world."
"Colonialism is an idea born in the West that drives Western countries - like France, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain - to occupy countries outside of Europe."
"I think a failed state is the responsibility of the people who have made that state fail, and those are generally the people of that country."
"This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections."
"I think that they participated in something that was not very proper and was very pitiful, not only for the Algerian people, but also for the other people who counted on our support."
"When I was engaged in the struggle for my country, I was very young. My horizons were open."
"A fly cannot go in unless it stops somewhere; therefore weapons, fuel, food, money will not go to Afghanistan unless the neighbors of Afghanistan are working, are cooperating, either being themselves the origin or the transit."
"There is an element of luck, there is an element of trial and error, sometimes you fail, sometimes you succeed. It's not as beautifully simple as it may seem when we are talking about it."
"There is an expression now that is commonly used about these so-called internal conflicts which are not really internal, because they have connections to the outside world."
"By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity."
"Iraq is a country that has been invaded. It's not a failing state that you want to help. It's a country that was functioning good or bad, with a horrible dictator, but you have invaded."
"Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand."
"To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation."
"When someone came to ask us for help, it was sacred. We did not even think twice. We helped them, even if we had only meagre means; we offered them arms, a little bit of money, and in occasion, men."
"A nation must be embraced, rehabilitated and expressed as a tangible sign of human creativity and as an integral element of mankind's heritage."
"From their point of view, I had gone too far. I had to disappear. That is to say, if the Algerian army had not overthrown me, others would have done so."
"There is a firm, clear commitment to provide resources and ideas to enable us to organize the Afghans towards starting the process of rehabilitation and reconstruction."
"Yes, my life is a life of combat; I can say that this has never stopped for a single instant. It is a combat that started for me at the age of 16. I'm 90 years old now, and my motivation hasn't changed; it's the same fervour that drives me."
"No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more."
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