{"quotes":[{"text":"He had never met a girl who shot an arrow straighter than Cupid did.","author":"Soroosh Shahrivar","tags":["cupid","cupid-s-arrow","girl","the-rise-of-shams"],"id":20736,"author_id":"Soroosh+Shahrivar"},{"text":"Pilgrims from all over the world were making their way to the place deemed the pearl of the Middle East. The city was reminiscent of a modern-day Persepolis. Its buildings, like towering pillars, tested the sky’s limit. The evenly paved roads belched with the smell of new tarmac, as if a million masons woke up every morning and by hand lay asphalt one grain at a time. People of all colors, ethnicities, creed and social statuses came bearing money, knowledge or experience in order to build their legacies in the new kingdom, sprouting out of the desert. Dubai had arrived.","author":"Soroosh Shahrivar","tags":["dubai","kingdom","the-rise-of-shams"],"id":26750,"author_id":"Soroosh+Shahrivar"},{"text":"The sun from far gives life. But get close to it and it burns anything down to ashes.","author":"Soroosh Shahrivar","tags":["life","sun","the-rise-of-shams"],"id":75077,"author_id":"Soroosh+Shahrivar"},{"text":"That word, confidence, was like butter on a hot stove for Darien, what he considered the most attractive quality in a woman.","author":"Soroosh Shahrivar","tags":["attractive","attractiveness","confidence","the-rise-of-shams","women","women-s-strength"],"id":94352,"author_id":"Soroosh+Shahrivar"},{"text":"Leadership was not an act of bravery but rather forbearance and the strength to move forward with humility in the belief of what is righteous.","author":"Soroosh Shahrivar","tags":["belief","brave","bravery","forbearance","humility","leadership","righteous","strength","strength-through-adversity","the-rise-of-shams"],"id":97548,"author_id":"Soroosh+Shahrivar"},{"text":"People needed proof that Utopia was nothing more than a theory, an illusion read in fictional stories.","author":"Soroosh Shahrivar","tags":["cynicism-reality","illusion","the-rise-of-shams","utopia"],"id":142847,"author_id":"Soroosh+Shahrivar"},{"text":"Death, one way or another, would breathe life into a new order of balance today.","author":"Soroosh Shahrivar","tags":["balance","death","life","the-rise-of-shams"],"id":168817,"author_id":"Soroosh+Shahrivar"},{"text":"The work of fate is a mystery.","author":"Soroosh Shahrivar","tags":["fate","mystery","the-rise-of-shams"],"id":222223,"author_id":"Soroosh+Shahrivar"},{"text":"Love was supposed to be the easiest path to divinity.","author":"Soroosh Shahrivar","tags":["divine-love","divinity","divinity-within","love","mysticism","sufi-wisdom","sufism","the-rise-of-shams"],"id":225727,"author_id":"Soroosh+Shahrivar"},{"text":"There are no such things as accidents. Only fate redesigned.","author":"Soroosh Shahrivar","tags":["accidents","esoteric-wisdom","fate","fate-destiny","inspirational","mysticism","the-rise-of-shams"],"id":231270,"author_id":"Soroosh+Shahrivar"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":21,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}