82 Quotes by Alija Izetbegović

In materialism, there is neither passion nor futility; there cannot be futility because there are no passions.

Huizinga noticed that contemporary man behaves childishly, in the negative sense of the word--that is, in a way which is equal to the mental level of puberty: banal amusements; the absence of authentic humor; the need for strong sensations; the inclination to mass parades and slogans; and the expression of an exaggerated hate or love, blame or praise, which have a mass and brutal aspect.

Kanunların çokluğu ve hukuki sistemin karmaşıklığı genel olarak toplumda "bir şeyin çürük" olduğunun ve yeni kanun yapmak yerine insanları terbiye etme gereği­nin işaretidir. Toplumun bozulmuşluğu belli bir sınırı geçtiği vakit kanunlar yetersiz (güçsüz) kalırlar. Onlar ya çürük yargı erkinin eline geçer veya bozuk toplumun gizli veya açık aldatmacasının aleti olurlar.

Life is a game where nobody wins. ..except for those who believe and do good deeds. . . (Qur'an 103:3).” via > book> Notes from Prison ― Alija Izetbegović, the first President of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992) and the author of several books, most notably " Islam Between East and West " and " Islamic Declaration ".

To desire and to work is human, and here the scope of ethics ends. The results and consequences are in God's hands.

If the international community is not ready to defend the principles which it itself has proclaimed as its foundations, let it say so openly, both to the people of Bosnia and to the people of the world. Let it proclaim a new code of behavior in which force will be the first and the last argument.

Men are not gentle and graceful beings solely oriented towards good. They are physical, coarse, contradictory, stretched between desires and temptations. In an unnatural wish to make them sinless and infallible, we suddenly realize that we have obtained bloodless, sentimental and false personalities incapable of both good and evil. Separating them from mother Earth, we separate them from life, and where is no life, there is no virtue either.

Zar čovjekovo poricanje Boga nije ponekad kapriciozno? Ograničenost savremenog čovjeka najviše se ogleda u njegovom uvjerenju da mu je sve jasno. Njegova mudrost je zbir njegovog znanja i ogromne količine neznanja koje on ne primjećuje, koje on, bolje rečeno, prihvata kao znanje. I pred licem najveće tajne on se ponaša samouvjereno i uobraženo. On ne vidi zagonetku i upravo u tome se očituje kolosalna mjera njegovog neznanja i predrasuda.

The equality of men is a spiritual and not a natural, physical, or intellectual fact. It exists as a moral quality of man, as the human dignity, or as the equal value of the human personality.... If man's spiritual value is not recognized--this fact of religious character--the only real base of human equality is lost.