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"When will the state of the country be sound ?". He replied, "When its people believe that the end result of cowardice is more disastrous than that of behaving with integrity". (Pages: 87-88)

Perfection is a dream that lives in the imagination. If it were to be realized in existence, life for any living creature would not be pleasant.... Life appears to be a chain of struggles, tears, and fears, and yet it has a magic that enchants and intoxicates. (Page: 99)

(Echoes of an Autobiography by Naguib Mahfouz, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. He has left Egypt only three times in his life, once to Yemen, once to Yugoslavia and once to England for surgery. Translation by Denys Johnson-Davies)