Top 35 Nizar Qabbani Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “A tragedy, when a mature mind and a romantic heart are in the same body.”

— Nizar Qabbani

Featured in: Love Quotes, Wisdom Quotes

2. “Days will pass, and you’ll abandon things you were addicted to, and leave someone, and cancel a dream, and finally, accept a reality.”

— Nizar Qabbani

3. “And the writing is still : to you, with you, about you, because of you and for you.”

— Nizar Qabbani

4. “My lover asks me: “What is the difference between me and the sky?” The difference, my love, Is that when you laugh, I forget about the sky.”

— Nizar Qabbani

5. “If you want to kill somebody, conquer his heart, Then leave slowly and leave them between death and madness.”

— Nizar Qabbani

6. “Don’t love deeply, till you make sure that the other part loves you with the same depth, because the depth of your love today, is the depth of your wound tomorrow.”

— Nizar Qabbani

7. “Don’t lose a woman that has seen your flaws and still love you.”

— Nizar Qabbani

8. “Because my love for you is beyond words, I decided to shut up.”

— Nizar Qabbani

9. “Life doesn’t stop after losing someone, but it goes on without them differently.”

— Nizar Qabbani

10. “The female doesn’t want a rich man or a handsome man or even a poet, she wants a man who understands her eyes if she gets sad, and points to his chest and say : ‘Here is your home country.’”

— Nizar Qabbani

11. “There is who loves you quietly, and respects you quietly, and wishes you privately, and walks away when he sees you busy with someone other than him, and his ego restrains him from getting near you, and contents himself with the love for the sake of love.”

— Nizar Qabbani

12. “And I fear that my place gets taken by some other one, very lucky and not too shy, who flirts with your eyes while I’m the one who’s crazy about them.”

— Nizar Qabbani

13. “Light is more important than the lantern, The poem more important than the notebook.”

— Nizar Qabbani

14. “Dive into the sea, or stay away.”

— Nizar Qabbani

15. “There are some people that we didn’t forget, but we don’t smile any more when they’re mentioned.”

— Nizar Qabbani

16. “Not everything in the heart can be said, so god created sighs, tears, long sleep, cold smile and shivering hands.”

— Nizar Qabbani

17. “What we feel is beyond words. We should be ashamed of our poems.”

— Nizar Qabbani

18. “Your love taught me to grieve and I have been needing, for centuries a woman to make me grieve for a woman, to cry upon her arms like a sparrow for a woman to gather my pieces like shards of broken crystal.”

— Nizar Qabbani

19. “In the summer I stretch out on the shore And think of you. Had I told the sea What I felt for you, It would have left its shores, Its shells, Its fish, And followed me.”

— Nizar Qabbani

20. “Our enemies did not cross our borders They crept through our weaknesses like ants.”

— Nizar Qabbani

21. “We are a thick skinned people with emtpy souls. We spend our days playing dice, chess, or sleeping – and we say we are the best people that ever came to mankind?”

— Nizar Qabbani

22. “We need an angry generation, A generation to plow the horizons.”

— Nizar Qabbani

23. “Our shouting is louder than our actions, Our swords are taller than us, This is our tragedy. In short We wear the cape of civilisation But our souls live in the stone age.”

— Nizar Qabbani

24. “We killed you and it was not new for us, we killed the companions of the Prophet and the friends of God. O how many Messengers did we slay? O how many imams? We killed you and you prayed the night prayer, as all of our days are struggle – and all of our days are Karbala.”

— Nizar Qabbani

25. “It’s not a shame if a man learns something from a woman’s heart which makes him more gentle and human.”

— Nizar Qabbani

26. “Some are like the Moon, good looking, but only when they’re away from you.”

— Nizar Qabbani

27. “They see that giving birth to a man is hope, and giving birth to a woman is a disappointment, although every man’s dream is a woman and every woman’s disappointment is a man.”

— Nizar Qabbani

28. “Io non posseggo nulla al mondo, tranne i tuoi occhi e la mia tristezza.”

— Nizar Qabbani

29. “I do not resemble your other lovers, my lady. Should another give you a cloud, I give you rain. Should he give you a lantern, I will give you the moon. Should he give you a branch, I will give you the trees, and if another gives you a ship, I shall give you the journey.”

— Nizar Qabbani

30. “Give me a daughter with your stubborn heart, or your even temper. Give our children your dark-bright eyes, or your enchanted smile. So that even when we are gone, the world will find within them all of the reasons why I loved you.”

— Nizar Qabbani

31. “When a man is in love how can he use old words? Should a woman desiring her lover lie down with grammarians and linguists? I said nothing to the woman I loved but gathered love’s adjectives into a suitcase and fled from all languages.”

— Nizar Qabbani

32. “I throw my passport into the sea, And name you my country, I throw all my dictionaries in the fire, And name you my language.”

— Nizar Qabbani

33. “We praise like frogs, Swear like frogs, Turn midgets into heroes, and heroes into scum: We never stop and think.”

— Nizar Qabbani

34. “O Sultan, my master, if my clothes are ripped and torn it is because your dogs with claws are allowed to tear me.”

— Nizar Qabbani

35. “It’s painful to listen to the barking of dogs.”

— Nizar Qabbani

36. “The word is a bouncing ball The ruler throws from his balcony. The word has been a shot of morphine. Rulers calm their people with speeches.”

— Nizar Qabbani