# Quote — Naguib Mahfouz, Midaq Alley

> It's fantastic the way these young men act. Why, they scarcely have a penny to their names, yet they see no reason why they shouldn't get married and populate the whole alley with children who get their food from garbage carts.

- Author: [Naguib Mahfouz](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naguib-mahfouz.md)
- Book: [Midaq Alley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naguib-mahfouz/midaq-alley.md)
- Page: 139
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Naguib_Mahfouz#Midaq_Alley_(1947)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/naguib-mahfouz/midaq-alley/its-fantastic-the

## More from this book

> What hopeless wretches we are. Our country is pitiful and so are the people. Why is it that the only time we find a little happiness is when the world is involved in a bloody war? Surely it's only the devil who has pity on us in this world.

p. 247 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naguib-mahfouz/midaq-alley/what-hopeless-wretches.md)

> Abbas now marveled at the strength of love, its power and its strange magic. He thought it right that God had created mankind capable of love and then left the task of developing life to the fertility of love.

p. 37 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naguib-mahfouz/midaq-alley/abbas-now-marveled.md)

> Satan finds the doors of youth an easy entrance and he slips in both secretly and openly to spread his havoc. We should do all we can do to prevent the doors of youth opening to him and keep them tightly closed. Just think of elderly men to whom age has given the keys of respectability. What would be the situation if we were to see them deliberately opening these doors and calling out in invitation to the devil?

p. 94 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/naguib-mahfouz/midaq-alley/satan-finds-the.md)