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Whenever I reflect, my reflecting upon what I suffer only rouses me to blame him that begot me.
And I gave peace to my children, for they are in the bliss of non-existence which surpasses all the pleasures of this world.
Had they come to life, they would have endured a misery casting them to destruction in trackless wildernesses.

— Al-Ma'arri Studies in Islamic Poetry (1921)

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Philosophy

More quotes by Al-Ma'arri

The world holds two classes of men; intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence.

To beget is to increase the sum of evil.

The lizard's ancestors are the cause of its being hunted.

The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts:
Those with brains, but no religion,
And those with religion, but no brains.

This world is such an abode that if those present here
Have their wits entire, they will never weep for the absent ones.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Al-Ma'arri (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.