For it is often the way we look at other people that imprisons them within their own narrowest allegiances. And it is also the way we look at them that may set them free.
Interpretation
Our perceptions shape others' identities and possibilities.
Amin Maalouf's quote suggests that the way we perceive and judge others can confine them to limited roles or identities defined by our narrow perspectives. Conversely, if we view them with empathy and openness, we can empower them to break free from societal constraints and realize their true potential.
In practice
This quote can be used in discussions about social justice and the importance of perspective.
The identity cannot be compartmentalized; it cannot be split in halves or thirds, nor have any clearly defined set of boundaries. I do not have several identities, I only have one, made of all the elements that have shaped its unique proportions.
We are not just visitors on this planet, it belongs to us just as we belong to her, its past is ours, so is its future.
What makes me myself rather than anyone else is the very fact that I am poised between two countries, two or three languages, and several cultural traditions. It is precisely this that defines my identity. Would I exist more authentically if I cut off a part of myself
During my youth, the idea of moving from Lebanon was unthinkable. Then I began to realise I might have to go, like my grandfather, uncles and others who left for America, Egypt, Australia, Cuba.
Let your tears roll tonight, but tomorrow you will start the battle again. What defeats us, always, is just our own sorrow.
A life spent writing has taught me to be wary of words. Those that seem clearest are often the most treacherous.
Since I am convinced that I wrong no one, I am not likely to wrong myself.
Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something.
At this moment, is there anything lacking? Nirvana is right here now before our eyes. This place is the lotus land. This body now is the Buddha.
Evil comes from the ABUSE of free will
The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.
Religion, as distinguished from modern paganism, implies a life in conformity with nature. It may be observed that the natural life and the supernatural life have a conformity to each other which neither has with the mechanistic life...A wrong attitude towards nature implies, somewhere, a wrong attitude towards God...[We should] struggle to recover the sense of relation to nature and to God.
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