A collection of sayings and quotes by Nizar Qabbani on love, romance, eroticism, feminism, Quran, women, feelings, pain, poetry, tears, arabs and freedom.

41 Top Nizar Qabbani Quotes That Will Inspire You

Quick Facts

Listed In

Writers, Poets

Famous As

Diplomat

Born On

March 21, 1923

Died On

April 30, 1998

Born In

Damascus

Died At Age

Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani was a Syrian poet and diplomat, who lived in the 19^th century and is often regarded as one of the greatest Arab poets of the modern era. He was born in a mercantile family in Syria’s capital Damascus and studied at the Scientific College School, before graduating in law from Damascus University in 1945. Qabbani had started writing poems from an early age and his first poem collection titled ‘The Brunette Told Me’ was published while he was still in law school. He entered the Syrian Foreign Ministry soon after and worked in different parts of the world, before resigning in 1966 in order to concentrate on his publishing business. However, it was as a poet that Qabbani really became an iconic figure and over the course of his career that lasted over several decades, he wrote on themes like Arab nationalism, feminism, love and eroticism that made him one of the greatest poets in the Arab world. Some of his noted poem collections include ‘You Are Mine’, ‘Poems Against the Law’, ‘Childhood of a Breast’, ‘My Beloved’, ‘Book of Love’, ‘Samba’ and ‘Diary of an Indifferent Woman’ among many others. Here is a collection of some of Nizar Qabbani’s most profound quotes that have been extracted from the vast sea of his work, writings, books and poems. Read on the thoughts and quotes of Nizar Qabbani that will fill your heart with love.

In the summer I stretch out on the shore And think of you. Had I told the sea What I felt for you, It would have left its shores, Its shells, Its fish, And followed me.
Me , Think

- Nizar Qabbani

There is who loves you quietly, and respects you quietly, and wishes you privately, and walks away when he sees you busy with someone other than him, and his ego restrains him from getting near you, and contents himself with the love for the sake of love
Ego

- Nizar Qabbani

My lover asks me: “What is the difference between me and the sky?” The difference, my love, Is that when you laugh, I forget about the sky
Me

- Nizar Qabbani

Days will pass, and you’ll abandon things you were addicted to, and leave someone, and cancel a dream, and finally, accept a reality.

- Nizar Qabbani

There are some people that we didn't forget, but we don't smile any more when they're mentioned.

- Nizar Qabbani

Arab children, Corn ears of the future, You will break our chains, Kill the opium in our heads, Kill the illusions. Arab children, Don't read about our suffocated generation, We are a hopeless case. We are as worthless as a water-melon rind. Dont read about us, Dont ape us, Dont accept us, Dont accept our ideas, We are a nation of crooks and jugglers. Arab children, Spring rain, Corn ears of the future, You are the generation That will overcome defeat.

- Nizar Qabbani

Our enemies did not cross our borders They crept through our weaknesses like ants.
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- Nizar Qabbani

Kill him, then hug him. Men are more faithful when dead.

- Nizar Qabbani

When a man is in love how can he use old words? Should a woman desiring her lover lie down with grammarians and linguists? I said nothing to the woman I loved but gathered love's adjectives into a suitcase and fled from all languages.

- Nizar Qabbani

Love in the Arab world is like a prisoner, and I want to set (it) free. I want to free the Arab soul, sense and body with my poetry. The relationships between men and women in our society are not healthy.
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- Nizar Qabbani

We need an angry generation, A generation to plow the horizons

- Nizar Qabbani

Our shouting is louder than our actions, Our swords are taller than us, This is our tragedy. In short We wear the cape of civilisation But our souls live in the stone age

- Nizar Qabbani

Because my love for you is beyond words, I decided to shut up.

- Nizar Qabbani

The most dangerous heart disease: strong memory

- Nizar Qabbani

We killed you and it was not new for us, we killed the companions of the Prophet and the friends of God. O how many Messengers did we slay? O how many imams? We killed you and you prayed the night prayer, as all of our days are struggle - and all of our days are Karbala.

- Nizar Qabbani

My lover asks me: “What is the difference between me and the sky?” The difference, my love, Is that when you laugh, I forget about the sky
Me

- Nizar Qabbani

Never believe a man can change a woman those men are pretenders who think that they created women from one of their ribs
Never

- Nizar Qabbani

Don’t love deeply, till you make sure that the other part loves you with the same depth, because the depth of your love today, is the depth of your wound tomorrow.

- Nizar Qabbani

The female doesn’t want a rich man or a handsome man or even a poet, she wants a man who understands her eyes if she gets sad, and points to his chest and say : 'Here is your home country.

- Nizar Qabbani

Light is more important than the lantern, The poem more important than the notebook

- Nizar Qabbani

Had I told the sea What I felt for you, It would have left its shores, Its shells, Its fish, And followed me.
Me

- Nizar Qabbani

Life doesn't stop after losing someone, but it goes on without them differently.
Life

- Nizar Qabbani

We are a thick skinned people with emtpy souls. We spend our days playing dice, chess, or sleeping - and we say we are the best people that ever came to mankind?

- Nizar Qabbani

And I fear that my place gets taken by some other one, very lucky and not too shy, who flirts with your eyes while I’m the one who’s crazy about them.

- Nizar Qabbani

Days will pass, and you’ll abandon things you were addicted to, and leave someone, and cancel a dream, and finally, accept a reality.

- Nizar Qabbani

O Sultan, my master, if my clothes are ripped and torn it is because your dogs with claws are allowed to tear me.
Me

- Nizar Qabbani

When I wiped you from the book of memory, I did not know I was striking out half my life
Life

- Nizar Qabbani

Some are like the Moon, good looking, but only when they're away from you.
Like

- Nizar Qabbani

I gave you my whole when I could only give the quarter. And you kept your half from me when you could give your double.
Me

- Nizar Qabbani

Don't love deeply, till you make sure that the other part loves you with the same depth, because the depth of your love today, is the depth of your wound tomorrow.

- Nizar Qabbani

During times of war. I want to say: I only love you, And I cling you, Like the peel clings to a pomegranate, Like the tear clings to the eye, Like the knife clings to the wound.

- Nizar Qabbani

The sword has spoke the truth - in authority and wisdom - only the sword O Damascus is certain!

- Nizar Qabbani

And the writing is still : to you, with you, about you, because of you and for you.

- Nizar Qabbani

Don’t lose a woman that has seen your flaws and still love you.

- Nizar Qabbani

Before you came the world was prose. Now poetry is born.

- Nizar Qabbani

A tragedy, when a mature mind and a romantic heart are in the same body.

- Nizar Qabbani

In the summer I stretch out on the shore And think of you. Had I told the sea What I felt for you, It would have left its shores, Its shells, Its fish, And followed me.
Me , Think

- Nizar Qabbani

If you want to kill somebody, conquer his heart, Then leave slowly and leave them between death and madness.

- Nizar Qabbani

The female doesn't want a rich man or a handsome man or even a poet, she wants a man who understands her eyes if she gets sad, and points to his chest and say : 'Here is your home country.'

- Nizar Qabbani

In the end, forgetting is nothing but turning a page in the book of life. It may seem an easy matter, but as long as you can’t tear it, you will keep on stumbling upon it between each season of your life.
Life

- Nizar Qabbani