Muriel Spark
"If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work ... the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk lamp ... The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquility of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impede your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, very mysterious."
15 Quotes
"If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work ... the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk lamp ... The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquility of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impede your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, very mysterious."
"إذا أردت أن تركز بعمق في مشكلة ما، وخاصة في قطعة كتابة أو عمل ورقي، فعليك أن تقتني قطاً. وحيداً مع القط في الغرفة التي تعمل فيها... سيعتلي القط مكتبك حتماً ويستقر بهدوء تحت مصباح المكتب... سيستقر القط ويكون وادعاً، بسكينة تفوق كل فهم. وسيبدأ هدوء القط تدريجياً في التأثير عليك، وأنت جالس هناك على مكتبك، فتتألف كل الصفات المثيرة التي تعيق تركيزك وتُعيد لعقلك السيطرة الذاتية التي فقدها. لست بحاجة لمراقبة القط طوال الوقت. فمجرد وجوده يكفي. إن تأثير القط على تركيزك لافت للنظر، وغامض جداً."
Muriel Spark
A Far Cry from Kensington
"The word education comes from the root e from ex, out, and duco, I lead. It means a leading out. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul."
"إن كلمة "التربية" مشتقة من الجذر اللاتيني "e" (التي تعني "خارج" أو "إلى الخارج") و"duco" (التي تعني "أنا أقود"). وهي بذلك تعني "الإخراج" أو "القيادة إلى الخارج". وبالنسبة لي، فإن التربية هي إخراج ما هو موجود بالفعل في روح التلميذ."
Muriel Spark
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
"To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul."
"التعليم في نظري هو استجلاء لما هو كامن في روح التلميذ بالفعل."
Muriel Spark
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
"It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree, but smiles."
"من المستحيل إقناع امرئ لا يخالفك الرأي، بل يبتسم."
Muriel Spark
"To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul. To Miss Mackay it is a putting in of something that is not there, and that is not what I call education. I call it intrusion."
"بالنسبة لي، التعليم هو استجلاء لما هو كامنٌ في روح التلميذ. أما عند الآنسة ماكاي، فهو حشوٌ لشيءٍ غير موجودٍ فيها، وهذا ليس ما أسميه تعليمًا. بل أسميه اقتحامًا."
Muriel Spark
"When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality."
"إذا ما هيأت حياة كريمة شيخوختها، فإنها لا تكشف عن انحدار، بل عن بواكير الخلود."
Muriel Spark
"Parents learn a lot from their children about coping with life."
"يتعلم الآباء الكثير من أبنائهم عن كيفية مواجهة مصاعب الحياة."
Muriel Spark
"It is impossible to repent of love. The sin of love does not exist."
"لا يمكن التوبة عن الحب. فخطيئة الحب لا وجود لها."
Muriel Spark
"It is a good thing to go to Paris for a few days if you have had a lot of trouble, and that is my advice to everyone except Parisians."
"إنها لفكرة سديدة أن تقصد باريس لبضعة أيام إذا ما أثقلتك الهموم، وتلك نصيحتي لكل أحد إلا الباريسيين."
Muriel Spark
"Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur."
"تَيَقَّظْ لِتُدْرِكَ أَوْجَكَ، مَتَى مَا حَلَّ فِي أَيِّ مَرْحَلَةٍ مِنْ حَيَاتِكَ."
Muriel Spark
"It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree but smiles."
"من المستحيل إقناع امرئ لا يخالفك الرأي، بل يبتسم."
Muriel Spark
"To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul."
"التعليم في نظري هو استجلاء لما هو كامن في روح التلميذ."
Muriel Spark
"[Being in love] is something like poetry. Certainly you can analyze it and expound its various senses and intentions but there is always something left over mysteriously hovering between music and meaning."
"الحب، كالشعر تماماً. يمكنك أن تحلله وتستفيض في شرح معانيه ومقاصده المتعددة، لكن سيبقى دوماً شيء ما، يحوم بغموض بين الموسيقى والمعنى."
Muriel Spark
"you're quite wrong there, Collie. One does miss sex. The body has a life of it's own. We do miss what we haven't had, you and I. Biologically. Ask Sigmund Freud. It is revealed in dreams. The absent touch of warm limbs at night, the absent"
Muriel Spark
"I often wonder if we were all characters in one of God's dreams."
Muriel Spark
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