Elif Şafak Quotes

The four borders of the Taj Mahal are designed to be identical, as if there were a mirror situated on one side, though one can never tell on which one. Stone reflected in the water. God reflected in human beings. Love reflected in heartbreak. Truth reflected in stories. We live, toil and die under the same invisible dome. Rich and poor, Mohammedan and baptized, free and slave, man and woman, Sultan and mahout, master and apprentice … I have come to believe that if there is one shape that reaches out to all of us, it is the dome. That is where all the distinctions disappear and every single sound, whether of joy or sorrow, merges into one huge silence of all-encompassing love. When I think of this world in such a way, I feel dazed and disoriented, and cannot tell any longer where the future begins and the past ends; where the West falls and the East rises.

Yeah, we should all line up along the Bosphorus Bridge and puff as hard as we can to shove this city in the direction of the West. If that doesn't work, we'll try the other way, see if we can veer to the East. It's no good to be in between. International politics does not appreciate ambiguity.

The midwife knows that when there is no pain, the way for the baby cannot be opened and the mother cannot give birth. Likewise, for a new Self to be born, hardship is necessary.

Tell me, if you teach someone the alphabet, how can you stop him from reading? When one has tasted the elixir of love, how can she not thirst for it? Once you have seen yourself through your beloved's eyes, you're not the same person any longer. I was blind all this time, and now that my eyes are open, i'm afraid of light. But i don't want to live like a mole. Not anymore.

When you have both eyes closed to the world, a third eye opens in your heart.

Even a speck of love should not go unappreciated, because, as Rumi said, love is the water of life.

As I do next to all women who glow with this kind of femininity, I feel like an impostor, a poor imitation of my gender. To her, womanhood comes naturally, like a yawn or a sneeze, just as effortless. To me, womanhood is something I need to observe and study, learn and imitate, and still can never fully comprehend.

بعد هذه الحادثة، فهم جهان أن سر معلمه لا يكمن في الشدة لأنه ليس فظا أصلا، ولا في جبروته لأنه ليس متجبرا، انما في قدرته على التكيف مع التغييرات والكوارث وإعادة بناء نفسه مرات ومرات من جديد... وإذا كان جهان قد من خشب وداؤود من معدن ونيقولا من حجر ويوسف من زجاج، فإن سنان كان مصنوعا من ماء جار... فكلما حدث انسداد في مجراه، كان يجري من تحت ومن حول ومن فوق قدر استطاعته. كان يجد طريقه بين الشقوق ليظل منسابا إلى. الامام

لم يدرك إلا قليلًا أن قيمة إيمان الفرد لا تعتمد على متانته وصلابته، بل على عدد المرات التي سيفقد فيها ذلك الإيمان ويبقى قادرًا على إستعادته.

Maybe we give other names to grief because we are too scared to call it by its name.

But let us not forget that cities are like human beings. They are born, they go through childhood and adolescence, they grow old, and eventually they die

They didn't hear her , but it was enough that GOD did

When you are in trouble or at your lowest point, and have no one in whom to confide, a hawthorn would be the right choice. There is a reason why hawthorns are home to fairies and known to protect pots of treasure. For wisdom, try a beech; for intelligence, a pine; for bravery, a rowan; for generosity, a hazel; for joy, a juniper; and for when you need to learn to let go of what you cannot control, a birch with its white-silver bark, peeling and shedding layers like old skin. Then again, if it's love you're after, or love you have lost, come to the fig, always the fig.

Let love take hold of you and change you. At first through its presence then through its absence.

بعض الناس يتغذون على تعاسات الآخرين.