Elif Şafak Quotes

كيف يمكن للمرء أن يلوم الآخرين لأنهم لا يحترمونه إذا لم يكن يعتبر نفسه جديرا بالاحترام.

We must do what we can to mend our lives, we owe that to ourselves – but we need to be careful not to break others while achieving that.

Article Five: If you have no reason or ability to accomplish anything, then just practice the art of becoming.

في الشطرنج، كما في الحياة، توجد حركات تنفذها لتربح، و حركات تقوم بها لأنها الحركات التي يجب أن تقدم عليها.

Intellect and love are made of two different materials. Intellect ties people in knots and risks nothing, but love dissolves all tangles and risks everything. Intellect is always cautious and advises, “Beware too much ecstasy,” whereas Love says, “Oh never mind. Take the plunge!” Intellect does not easily break down, whereas love can effortlessly reduce itself to rubble. But treasures are hidden amongst ruins. A broken heart hides treasure. (5)

It's odd how faces, solid and visible as they are, evaporate, while words, made of breath, stay.

Nalan thought that one of the endless tragedies of human history was that pessimists were better at surviving than optimists, which mean that, logically speaking, humanity carried the genes of people who did not believe in humanity.

أحياناً، لابدّ من أن ينفطر قلبك يا بني حتّي تزهر روحك

Little did she know that this was going to be not just any book, but the book that changed her life. In the time she was reading it, her life would be rewritten.

What is the point of roaming the world when it's the same misery everywhere?

We're stuck. We're stuck between the East and the West. Between the past and the future. On the one hand there are the secular modernists, so proud of the regime they constructed, you cannot breathe a critical word. They've got the army and half of the state on their side. On the other hand there are the conventional traditionalist, so infatuated with the Ottoman past, you cannot breathe a critical word. They've got the general public and the remaining half of the state on their side.

أن الطريق إلى الحقيقة يمر من القلب، لا من الرأس فأجعل قلبك لا عقلك دليلك الرئيسي ، وجه .. تحد ,, وتغلب في نهاية المطاف على (النفس) بقلبك إن معرفتك بنفسك ستقودك إلى معرفة الله.

Don't ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western.
Divisions only lead to more divisions.

Love has no labels, no definitions.
It is what it is, pure and simple.
Love is the water of life and a lover is a soul of fire!

The universe turns differently when fire loves water.

لقد خلق الله المعاناة لكي تظهر السعادة من خلال نقيضها. فالأشيلء تظهر من خلال أضدادها

.وبما أنه لا يوجد نقيض لله، فإنه يظل مخفيا.

What was love if it wasn't nursing someone else's pain as if it were your own?