Ameen Rihani
Ameen Rihani
Ameen Rihani, was a Lebanese Arab-American writer, intellectual and political activist. He was also a major figure in the mahjar literary movement developed by Arab emigrants in North America, and an early theorist of Arab nationalism. He became an American citizen in 1901...
NationalityLebanese
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth24 November 1876
CountryLebanon
lakes light mankind
In the Lakes of Light, Love and Will, I would baptize all mankind.
philosophy airplane east
I am the East. I have philosophies, I have religions, who would exchange them for airplanes?
thinking europe ideas
... And if Europe gives Arabia a railway, Arabia gives Europe an idea - which I think balances the account.
Truth breeds power, and truth never perishes.
men soul psychology
Breathless and unharmed, we emerge from the mazes of metaphysics and psychology where man and the soul are playing hide-and-seek.
christian religious goal
Whether you were Moslem, Christian, Druze, or Israeli, remember, God protect thee, that religious fanaticism for political goals or political fanaticism for religious purposes is the worst kind of fanaticism.
rights individual form
The duties I ask of myself are obligatory for absolutely every individual, everywhere. Moreover, just as I recognize these rights and duties of others, I would like the others to recognize them form me as well.
ambition mean heart
The West for me means ambition, the East contentment. My heart is ever in one, my soul in the other.
eye shoes walking-shoes
My American walking shoes are new, and my Oriental eyes are old.
heart simple mind
My first wish is to be simple in my actions, truthful in my speech, honest in my opinions, and natural in my behavior. In other words, I want to be clean in mind, heart, and body.
allow enter less mystic refuge wire
To be sure, we would not allow the world, if we can help it, to peep into our soul, much less to enter it. Our No-Man's-Land is hedged about with a wire entanglement of insincerities. And often we take refuge in a temperament, a pose, or a mystic mood.
idealists
We are all idealists in that we are ever discontented with the present state of the Ego and the World.
above boy camera copy distant divine follow human inform interpret nature rises shepherd spirit trail whistling wind work
To copy Nature? A boy with a camera can do that. To get the spirit of Nature? A woodman or a shepherd can follow the trail of the whistling wind to hoarded sunshine in distant wolds. But to interpret Nature and inform it with a human personality that rises above it, invokes the divine in it, is the work of genius.
bolshevism european oriental
Bolshevism may be Marxian in theory, but it is Hulagoesque in practice. It may be of European descent, but it is Oriental in tradition. Oriental in mood. Oriental in temperament.