13 Ishmael Beah Quotes for You to Enjoy

Ishmael Beah

Author

Born: Nov 23, 1980

Family Life Me People War You

Related authors: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn C. S. Lewis Frederick Douglass George Orwell Helen Keller Henry David Thoreau Mark Twain Zig Ziglar

I believe in having a more open mind and including others who don't share your faith and having dialogue with them. And just having a pure heart and being a good person can bring you closer to God. Because once you believe in one particular religion fully and not others, that requires you to start disliking people who don't share your views. Ishmael Beah

God Faith Good Religion You Heart People Mind Good Person Pure Believe Others Once Pure Heart Having More Open Share Open Mind Particular Because Dialogue Person Closer Just Being Them Requires Your Views Who Fully Including Start Bring

We all find joy and radiance and a reason to move on even in the most dire of circumstances. Even in chaos and madness, there's still a beauty that comes from just the vibrancy of another human spirit. Ishmael Beah

Joy Madness Beauty Move On Chaos Circumstances Find Spirit Dire Most Another Still Move Human Just Radiance Reason Even Human Spirit

I had a very simple, unremarkable and happy life. And I grew up in a very small town. And so my life was made up of, you know, in the morning going to the river to fetch water - no tap water, and no electricity - and, you know, bathing in the river, and then going to school, and playing soccer afterwards. Ishmael Beah

Life Morning You Happy Water Simple School Made My Life Happy Life Bathing Small River Had Small Town Town Know Tap Up Very Fetch Going Grew Afterwards Soccer Then Electricity Playing

A lot of people, when they say 'forgive and forget,' they think you completely wash your brain out and forget everything. That is not the concept. What I think is you forgive and you forget so you can transform your experiences, not necessarily forget them but transform them, so that they don't haunt you or handicap you or kill you. Ishmael Beah

As a child soldier, your rights are constantly violated. Ishmael Beah

Rights Soldier Constantly Child Your Violated

I guess what I'd like to say is that people in Sierra Leone are human beings, just like Americans. They want to send their kids to school; they want to live in peace; they want to have their basic rights of life just like everyone else. I think we all owe an obligation to support people who want to do that. Ishmael Beah

Life Peace Rights People Obligation School Live Think Else Guess Everyone Everyone Else Sierra Sierra Leone Say Kids Support Like Owe American Send Human Just Want Human Beings Who Beings Basic Basic Rights

What happens in the context of war is that, in order for you to make a child into a killer, you destroy everything that they know, which is what happened to me and my town. My family was killed, all of my family, so I had nothing. Ishmael Beah

War Family Me You Nothing Everything Destroy Killer Had Town Know Make Context Child Order Happened Happens Which

I was one of those children forced into fighting at the age of 13, in my country Sierra Leone, a war that claimed the lives of my mother, father and two brothers. I know too well the emotional, psychological and physical burden that comes with being exposed to violence as a child or at any age for that matter. Ishmael Beah

War Age Mother Matter Burden Father Country Fighting Too Sierra Sierra Leone Those Claimed Physical Brothers Emotional Know Well Forced Child Any Being Children Psychological Exposed Lives Violence Two

The thing that really gets to me is that countries are in the news only when things get out of hand. That's when it's newsworthy. When the war ends, it's not newsworthy anymore; no one wants to think about it. Actually, the aftermath is the most important part. It's when people have to rebuild. Ishmael Beah

War News Me People Important Rebuild Think Out About Only No-One Part Countries Most Important Part Hand Get Gets Ends The Most Important Anymore Wants Aftermath Really Actually Thing Things

I believe that there is a God, and coming from an African tradition, I believe also that there are gods. Ishmael Beah

God Believe Also Coming Tradition Gods African

For many observers, a child who has known nothing but war, a child for whom the Kalashnikov is the only way to make a living and for whom the bush is the most welcoming community, is a child lost forever for peace and development. I contest this view. For the sake of these children, it is essential to prove that another life is possible. Ishmael Beah

Life War Peace Lost Nothing Community Living Way Possible Only Observers Development Most Welcoming Make Known Another Contest Prove Sake Forever Child Essential Children Bush View Who Many Whom

Ishmael Beah Quotes

No more Ishmael Beah quotes