“Memories have ways of becoming independent of the reality they evoke. They can soften us against those we were deeply hurt by or they can make us resent those we once accepted and loved unconditionally.”
Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
Context: As I trace the route to his apartment, the twists and turns, and pass once more the old tree opposite his house, I am struck by a sudden thought: memories have ways of becoming independent of the reality they evoke. They can soften us against those we were deeply hurt by or they can make us resent those we once accepted and loved unconditionally.
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Azar Nafisi 28
Iranaian academic and writer 1955Related quotes

“Those we love are entitled to resent the allowances we make for them.”
Haven (1951)

“If we only have love
We can reach those in pain
We can heal all our wounds
We can use our own names.”
Translations and adaptations, If We Only Have Love (1968)

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 229

Source: Song lyrics, The Red Shoes (1993)

On the Mindless Menace of Violence (1968)
Context: Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution. But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can. Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.

Love in Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change (1993), p. 131

answer to what she would like young readers to take away after reading her first children's book -- quote from Latina Magazine (October 2005)
2007, 2008

As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 415