John Berger
"Autobiography begins with a sense of being alone. It is an orphan form."
35 Quotes
"Autobiography begins with a sense of being alone. It is an orphan form."
"تبدأ السيرة الذاتية بإحساس الوحدة. إنها صيغة يتيمة."
John Berger
"When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story's voice makes everything its own."
"عندما نقرأ قصة، نسكنها. أغلفة الكتاب كالسقف والجدران الأربعة. وما سيحدث تالياً سيجري ضمن جدران القصة الأربعة. وهذا ممكن لأن صوت القصة يجعل كل شيء ملكاً لها."
John Berger
Keeping a Rendezvous: Essays
"When we suffer anguish we return to early childhood because that is the period in which we first learnt to suffer the experience of total loss. It was more than that. It was the period in which we suffered more total losses than in all the rest of our life put together."
"حين يشتد بنا الأسى، نرتد إلى عهد الطفولة الأولى. ففيها تعلّمنا للمرة الأولى معاناة الفقد الكلي. بل كان الأمر أعمق من ذلك؛ ففيها تكبّدنا من الفقد الكلي أكثر مما تكبّدناه في سائر حياتنا مجتمعة."
John Berger
"Without ethics, man has no future. This is to say, mankind without them cannot be itself. Ethics determine choices and actions and suggest difficult priorities."
"تَجَرُّدُ الإنسانِ من الأخلاقِ يُفقِدُهُ مُستقبلَهُ. بعبارةٍ أخرى، لا يمكنُ للبشريةِ أن تكونَ ذاتَها دونَها. فالأخلاقُ هي التي تُحدِّدُ الخياراتِ والأفعالَ، وتُشيرُ إلى الأولوياتِ الصعبةِ."
John Berger
"That we find a crystal or a poppy beautiful means that we are less alone, that we are more deeply inserted into existence than the course of a single life would lead us to believe."
"أن نجد بلورة أو خشخاشة جميلة يعني أن وحدتنا أقل، وأننا منغمسون في الوجود بعمق أكبر مما قد توحي به مسيرة حياة واحدة."
John Berger
"A boycott is directed against a policy and the institutions which support that policy either actively or tacitly. Its aim is not to reject, but to bring about change."
"المقاطعة تستهدف سياسة معينة والمؤسسات التي تدعمها، سواء كان دعمها فعالاً أم ضمنياً. غايتها ليست الرفض، بل إحداث التغيير."
John Berger
"Drawing is a way of coming upon the connection between things, just like metaphor in poetry reconnects what has become separated."
"الرسم سبيلٌ لإدراك الصلة بين الأشياء، تماماً كالمجاز في الشعر يعيد وصل ما تفرّق."
John Berger
"What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time."
"إن ما يجعل التصوير اختراعًا فريدًا وغريبًا هو أن مادته الخام الأساسية هي الضوء والزمن."
John Berger
"Art is the provocation for talking about enigma and the search for sense in human life. One can do that by telling a story or writing about a fresco by Giotto or studying how a snail climbs up a wall."
"الفن هو المحرّض على الحديث عن الغموض، والبحث عن المعنى في حياة الإنسان. يمكن للمرء أن يفعل ذلك بسرد قصة، أو الكتابة عن لوحة جدارية لجوتو، أو دراسة كيف تتسلق الحلزونة جدارًا."
John Berger
"The human imagination... has great difficulty in living strictly within the confines of a materialist practice or philosophy. It dreams, like a dog in its basket, of hares in the open."
"إن الخيال البشري... يجد صعوبة بالغة في العيش ضمن حدود الممارسة أو الفلسفة المادية الصارمة. إنه يحلم، ككلب في سلة، بأرانب في العراء."
John Berger
"Being a unique superpower undermines the military intelligence of strategy. To think strategically, one has to imagine oneself in the enemy's place. If one cannot do this, it is impossible to foresee, to take by surprise, to outflank. Misinterpreting an enemy can lead to defeat. This is how empires fall."
"التفرد كقوة خارقة يقوّض الذكاء العسكري للاستراتيجية. فلكي يفكر المرء استراتيجيًا، عليه أن يتخيل نفسه في مكان العدو. وإن عجز عن ذلك، استحال عليه التنبؤ، والمباغتة، والتطويق. وسوء فهم العدو قد يؤدي إلى الهزيمة. هكذا تسقط الإمبراطوريات."
John Berger
"Nothing in the nature around us is evil. This needs to be repeated since one of the human ways of talking oneself into inhuman acts is to cite the supposed cruelty of nature."
John Berger
"A cigarette is a breathing space. It makes a parenthesis. The time of a cigarette is a parenthesis, and if it is shared, you are both in that parenthesis. It's like a proscenium arch for a dialogue."
John Berger
"Propaganda requires a permanent network of communication so that it can systematically stifle reflection with emotive or utopian slogans. Its pace is usually fast."
John Berger
"A drawing is essentially a private work, related only to the artist's own needs; a 'finished' statue or canvas is essentially a public, presented work - related far more directly to the demands of communication."
John Berger
"Protest and anger practically always derives from hope, and the shouting out against injustice is always in the hope of those injustices being somewhat corrected and a little more justice established."
John Berger
"At times failure is very necessary for the artist. It reminds him that failure is not the ultimate disaster. And this reminder liberates him from the mean fussing of perfectionism."
John Berger
"Do you know the legend about cicadas? They say they are the souls of poets who cannot keep quiet because, when they were alive, they never wrote the poems they wanted to."
John Berger
"Your lips, beloved, are like a honeycomb: honey and milk are under the tongue. And the smell of your clothes is like the smell of my home."
John Berger
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