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
war golf play
A poet is a poet, whether he rides in a Ford or on a donkey; a sage is a sage, whether he plays golf in New Jersey or bathes in the Ganges, or prays in the desert; and a fool is a fool, whether he be a maharaja or a president of a post-war republic.
dealt good played
All things, good and evil, come out, it seems, of the East. The Illuminati, like the Ismailites, dealt in allegories; and like the Mazdakites, they played with fire.
essential reveal sure traits truly trumpet
Not in our make-up, to be sure - not in the pose which is preceded by the tantaras of a trumpet - do the essential traits in our character first reveal themselves. But truly in the little things the real self is exteriorised.
cure few remain social
In a true democracy is the cure for most of our social and political ills, but a few of them must remain to keep us going.
government society
Society may be likened to a rod, which only a just government can balance properly.
born cherish continue failure ideal inner invest noblest
There is no such thing as disappointment for those who continue to cherish the selflessness of which is born the noblest inner self. There is no such thing as failure for those who invest in the potentialities of the Ideal of the Soul.
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.
develop hidden history nations seed time understand vice
The most important in the history of nations and individuals was once the most trivial, and vice versa. The plebeian, who is called today the 'man in the street,' can never see and understand the significance of the hidden seed of things, which in time must develop or die.
autocracy bolshevism few government
Autocracy is a government of the few from above; Bolshevism is a government of the few from below.
forms futile impulse sublime underlying value various
Deficiencies in individuals, as in States, have their value and import. Indeed, that sublime impulse of perfectibility, always vivacious, always working under various forms and with one underlying purpose, would be futile without them, and fatuous.
above ahead below heritage however idealist message primitive races time
An idealist is ahead of his time only in the sense that he is articulate. The same is true of a nation. For even primitive people, even effete races have a message for those above or below them. The heritage of the Ideal, however small can not be exhausted.
against both eternal intelligence nourished safeguard sources spirit wisdom
Only a well-rounded intellect, a spirit nourished in the eternal sources of intelligence and culture, of justice and wisdom, is a safeguard against both indifference and skepticism.
bled glorified sanctified
Revolution is glorified by intellectuals, apotheosized by poets, sanctified by visionaries, and bled white by politicians.
applies local society
Revolution applies a local anaesthetic to one class of society and operates on the other.