Top 587 Quotes & Sayings by Turkish Authors

Democracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off.

Success is about persistence. You can only afford to be persistent in something you deeply enjoy.

Your genetics load the gun. Your lifestyle pulls the trigger.

After I see in OKC, I see this is how NBA teams are. You know how you're like in a dream and you have a superpower and just don't want to open your eyes and end the dream? Oklahoma City's been like that to me.

My position on democracy is really clear. Any attempt to overthrow the country is a betrayal to our unity and is treason.

Nature is a divine art; it cannot be the artist. It is a dominical book and cannot be the scribe. It is an embroidery and cannot be the embroiderer. It is a register and cannot be the accountant. It is the law and cannot be the power.

I love commuting between languages just like I love commuting between cultures and cities.

We have to use cars much more efficiently. We have to look at alternative technologies of cars such as biofuels or, even more importantly, electric cars.

I think it's better to burn out than to fade away... it's better to live out your days being very, very active - even if it destroys you - than to quietly... disappear.

Unless a nation's life faces peril, war is murder.

The fast fish, not the big fish, eats the small fish.

Just about anyone can make a good product, but it's the people that count. In the end, it's the employees who will take it from a kitchen-table idea to the next level. There are a lot of important things in business, but the people portion comes first.

I get all of my motivation from my customers.

While no Muslim worthy of his name would lose his respect for God, the Prophet Muhammad, and other symbols of Islam, he might well refrain from using legal prosecution or violent reaction to those who do not show the same respect. My basis for this claim is nothing other than the holiest source of Islam, the Quran.

I've been part of a team and leader of the team. But wherever I've been, I've worked as if that was the only opportunity I had. I've never looked beyond that.

Turkey is a European country, an Asian country, a Middle Eastern country, Balkan country, Caucasian country, neighbor to Africa, Black Sea country, Caspian Sea, all these.

It is well known that Turkey has more imprisoned journalists than any other country, but as a result of the chilling effect of these prosecutions on the press, many stories never make the news.

Getting to the top is not so easy; staying there is more difficult.

Life is tragic comedy, in a way. There is humor.

Living is no laughing matter: you must live with great seriousness like a squirrel for example - I mean without looking for something beyond and above living, I mean living must be your whole occupation.

Thought is an errand boy, fear a mine of worries.

As I grew up, I began to discover a little bit about the situation of black people in America and experienced an immediate empathy with the victims of such senseless discrimination. Because although the Turks were never slaves, they were regarded as enemies within Europe because of their Muslim beliefs.

Those looking from Europe see Turkey as an economic success, whereas others from the Middle East see Turkey as a democratic success.

America is remarkable, don't you think so? When I came to Washington, I was twelve years old. I spoke English with an English accent. It was assumed that it would go on in that way.

People often ask me why I continue to speak out if it's hurting my family. But that's exactly why I speak out. The people Erdogan is targeting are my family, my friends, my neighbors, my classmates. I need to speak out, or my country will suffer in silence.

Turkey wants a policy of engagement exactly like President Obama's new approach. Policy of engagement, less confrontation, less tense attitude, especially in the region.

No citizen or social group can be completely isolated from politics, because policy decisions and actions affect their lives.

I feel the pain of people who suffer in my own neurons and sometimes cannot even watch TV. It is impossible not to be worried. But I trust that however cruel treatment they receive, Hizmet sympathizers will continue to respect to the law and will remain peaceful.

We should not cling to crude down to the last drop - we should leave oil before it leaves us.

Cable news, by its very nature, by its formula, is very guest-heavy.

I certainly do not support excluding faith from public life.

A Turkey under a dictatorial regime, providing haven to violent radicals and pushing its Kurdish citizens into desperation, would be a nightmare for Middle East security.

I can bear my own sorrows, but the sorrows arising from the calamities visiting Islam and Muslims have crushed me. I feel each blow delivered to the Muslim world as delivered first to my own heart.

My philosophy - inclusive and pluralist Islam, dedicated to service to human beings from every faith - is antithetical to armed rebellion.

In the 19th century, when Muslims were looking at Europe as an example, they were independent; they were more self-confident. In the early 20th century, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the whole Middle East was colonized. And when you have colonization, what do you have? You have anti-colonization.

'Zero problems with neighbors' is a value. But another equally important value is to establish peace.

Politicians and leaders who see the media as 'the enemy within' divide society into two clashing cultural camps. Populist demagogues benefit from binary oppositions.

If I get something wrong on air, I get 1,000 emails correcting me instantly, and most of our story suggestions come from viewers.

The divine wisdom which requires a division of labor has sown different abilities and tendencies in human nature and has enabled human beings to carry out the duty of establishing sciences and developing technology. The fulfillment of this duty is obligatory upon humanity as a whole, though not on every individual.

You cannot drive a system that's going to be aiming at preventing illness if everyone is not in it. The whole gaming of health insurance and health care in America is based on that fundamental principle: insure people who aren't sick and you don't have to pay more money on them.

Belief is not restricted to a brief affirmation based on imitation; rather, it has degrees and stages of development. It is like a seed growing into a fully grown, fruit-bearing tree; like the sun's image in a mirror or in a drop of water to its images on the sea's surface and to the sun itself.

My first wife was a theater person.

Fifty years from now, people will still be listening to Led Zeppelin. They won't even remember me.

The songwriters whom we think of being the greatest songwriters usually write one hit and six or seven flops. That includes the Irving Berlins and the Hoagy Carmichaels, the Harold Arlens, Cole Porter.

No matter how old you are, no matter how much you weigh, you can still control the health of your body.

God is the biggest storyteller, and when we create stories, we connect with him and with each other across cultural, religious and gender boundaries.

What if democracy does not serve liberty? This question is seldom asked in the West, where democracy is often seen as synonymous with liberalism.

At the end of the day, sleep is a barometer of your emotional health. And so if you're not in the right place where you need to be, then you're going to have voices keeping you up at night because you have to work through those issues.

Sabanci has many years of experience in the tire reinforcement industry, and we are committed to the success of this business through an advanced technology relationship with KoSa and a strong commitment to our customers.

I wear two hats. The one is business and increasing my shareholders' value; the other is social responsibility.

Islam and democracy can function together.

Tahir Pasha assigned me a room when I was staying in his residence, and every night before sleeping, I would spend around three hours going over the books I had memorized. It would take me three months to go through the lot. Thanks be to God, all those works became steps ascending to the truths of the Qur'an.

I'm an early, middle, and late supporter of Bernie Sanders.

Every hour you sit at work increases your mortality 11 percent. Think about that.

I used to bicycle to work across the George Washington Bridge, but my wife told me it wasn't professional.

The biggest mistake people make is to try to lose too much weight too fast.

The greater jihad is proclaiming war on our ego's destructive and negative emotions and thoughts... which prevent us from attaining perfection.

I cannot accept concepts such as Gulenism or Gulenist. I was only a writer and an official preacher among people. I can have no direct influence on any person or activity. It is inconceivable that I can exert pressure on anybody.

Do not suffer pain and torment without reason. Somebody All-Powerful and All-Compassionate owns everything. Rely on His Power and do not accuse His Compassion. Renounce grief and anxiety ad accept relief. Be rid of your troubles and find serenity.

What should be targeted is a concept of organic, and not just mechanic, democracy that preserves the rule of law, separation of powers, and that is participatory and pluralistic.