Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Elif Safak

French-born Turkish Writer, Political Scientist, awarded Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters

"You can know God through everything and everyone in the universe because God is not limited to a mosque, synagogue or church. But if you want to know exactly where his dwelling, there is only one place to look for it: in the heart of one who loves true. "

"According to Audre Lorde in all of us, whether we are parents or not, there is a black op mother. Men also carry a quality that, although too often prefer not to reach for it. Black mother at Lord's metaphor of the voice of intuition, creativity and passion unencumbered by anything. The white fathers told us: I think, then I exist and Black mother within each of us - the poet - whispers in our dreams: I feel so I can be free."

"Another rule that the pursuit of love. No one seeks behind only love and simmer During his trip, what The trip begins search for love even begin to change from home and abroad"

"Another base unit and being alone are two different things, when be lonely It's easy to fool yourself and think you you are going on the right path but being alone is better for us because it means you will be alone without feeling you are single , but in the end, it is best that you are looking for one person serve as a mirror for you to remember that you cannot really see yourself, but at the heart of another person and the existence of God P inside."

"A man who cries all night until destroyed, and the next morning continued the day with a smile called Woman."

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

"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"

"Creativity is contagious. And so is banality. Criticism is an art in itself. Don’t let the dullness around destroy the creativity within. T.S. Eliot said, honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry. Good to remember…"

"Do not go with the flow. Be the flow."

"As soon as the words were out, sorry. Was preferable to the man considered extremely being a woman, as no other. It should not have to show any of it or another, it is imperfect, vulnerable person like everyone else. If you know that wearing a heart of glass, it will break."

"Do not be scared where it leads the way. Instead, focus on the first step. This is the hardest part and that of her liability. Once you do the first step, let everything follow its natural course, and the rest will be ordered only. Not drift. You yourself be over."

"Fate does not mean that your life is destined. Therefore, it is a sign of complete ignorance to leave everything to fate and not contributing actively to the music of the universe. ... Your destiny - it is the level where you play your tune. Unlikely to change tools, but depends solely on how well you'll play."

"Even today, one rule applies: men perceive writers first as writers, and then as men. As for women writers, they are first women and only then writers."

"Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough."

"Finding Love changes us. Who is out to find Love, matures along the way. The moment to go looking for love, you're going to change from the inside out."

"How can love be worthy of its name if one selects solely the pretty things and leaves out the hardships? It is easy to enjoy the good and dislike the bad. Anybody can do that. The real challenge is to love the good and the bad together, not because you need to take the rough with the smooth but because you need to go beyond such descriptions and accept love in its entirety."

"Hell is the here and now. Heaven too. Stop being afraid of hell and dream of paradise, because the one and the other is set in the present moment. Every time you fall in love, to ascend to heaven. Every time we hate, envy or confront someone, fall right into hellfire."

"Hell is in the here and now. So is heaven. Quit worrying about hell or dreaming about heaven, as they are both present inside this very moment. Every time we fall in love, we ascend to heaven. Every time we hate, envy, or fight someone, we tumble straight into the fires of hell."

"First you meet someone, someone who is quite different from the people around. It looks at everything in a different light and makes you change to shift its angle of vision, to see it all again - inside and out. You think you can stand at a safe distance from it. You think you will ever find your way in this beautiful storm when suddenly you realize that you pushed offshore and have no power over anything. I cannot say exactly when I was captivated by your words. All I know is that our correspondence makes me another. From the outset. You'll probably regret that I said it. But because all my life I regretted things and I did not do, I see nothing wrong with that at least do something to regret. since met along the novel and our conversation, I think about you constantly. Read any of your emails, I feel something inside me stand on a whirlwind and am aware that for some time I have not tasted such contentment and excitement. all day I do not go out of head. Arguing with you in mind and I wonder how I would welcome any new stimulus in my life. If you go to a nice restaurant, I want you to be with me. Did you see anything interesting is sad that he can show you. The day before my younger daughter asked if I was doing something with her ​​hair. My hair is the same as before: but it is true that I look different because I feel different."

"How to deal with the goodness of their loved ones? Could be fought against goodness?"

"How do you name him? - Asked his wife, when she proudly showed blocks. Gentle sea breeze wafted the aroma of jasmine and floated between them. From the lips of Pavel Pavlovich Antipov fell off explaining that she could not say: - Agrippina, this is your baby, whose eyes were the color of ash. I will always love you, but I will not expect more than you can give him. Will be the sole and only you, but would not want to devote him. Never claim will not cry, I will not get sick and not die. Did not grow. If you do not leave, and it will not let you down. Will be called as you want. How would you call it?"

"How on earth could she now tell Armanoush that, though only nineteen, she had known many men's hands and did not feel a speck of guilt for it? Besides, How Could She ever reveal the truth Without giving the wrong Impression to an Outsider About the chastity of Turkish Girls? This kind of National Responsibility was utterly foreign to Asya Kasancı. Never before had she felt part of a collectivity and was accomplishing a pretty good impersonation of someone else, someone who had gotten patriotic overnight. How Could She now Step outside HER National Identity and BE HER pure, self sinning?"

"How we see God is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blame welled inside us. If we see God as full of love and compassion, so are we."

"Human beings tend to discredit the things he cannot understand for some reason."

"Humility does not mean being passive and cowardly. It leads to neither fatalism nor capitulation. Quite the contrary. In humility lies strength - strength welling inside. Who humbly obey the divine nature of life, will stand in the unperturbed tranquility and peace even when the whole wide world is thrown into turmoil."

"I see what you mean. It must be a huge relief, and an easy way out, to think the devil is always outside of us… we would stop looking for Sheitan outside and instead focus on ourselves. What we need is sincere self-examination. Not being on the watch for the faults of others."

"I like to borrow a metaphor from the great poet and mystic Rumi who talks about living like a drawing compass. One leg of the compass is static. It is fixed and rooted in a certain spot. Meanwhile, the other leg draws a huge wide circle around the first one, constantly moving. Just like that, one part of my writing is based in Istanbul. It has strong local roots. Yet at the same time the other part travels the whole wide world, feeling connected to several cities, cultures, and peoples."

"I slept peacefully that night, feeling exultant and determined. Little did I know that I was making the most common and the most painful mistake women have made all throughout the ages: to naively think that with their love they can change the man they love."

"If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough."

"I'm happy, I said. 'They asked me love you.! What's wrong to compare love with happiness... Where are seen, love brings happiness."

"In the colorful fan of months during the year every month knows to the time of year is attached and behave properly, every month except one - March."

"In the wider world there are more false leaders and false teachers than there are stars in the visible sky. Do not make the mistake of going to their mentors sunk in itself power hungry. A true spiritual teacher will draw attention to themselves and will not expect you complete obedience and admiration, and will help you appreciate the true I and to admire. True mentors are transparent as glass. They leave God's light to pass through them."

"It is so demanding to be born into a house full of women, where everyone loves you so overwhelmingly that they end up suffocating with their love; a house where you, as the only child, have to be more mature than all the adults around... But the problem is that they want me to become everything they themselves couldn't accomplish in life... As a result, I had to work my butt off to fulfill all their dreams at the same time."

"Life is a coincidence."

"Loneliness and solitude are two different things. When you are lonely, it is easy to delude yourself into believing that you are on the right path. Solitude is better for us, as it means being alone without feeling lonely. But eventually it is best to find a person, the person who will be your mirror. Remember, only in another person’s heart can you truly see yourself and the presence of God within you"

"Isn't connecting people to distant lands and culture one of the strengths of good literature?"

"It's never too late to ask yourself, Am I ready to change your life? Am I willing to change from the inside? It's really a shame if a single day in your life is the same as the previous one. In every moment, with every breath should be updated again and again."

"Love cannot be explained, yet it explains all."

"Love has no labels, no definitions. It just is what it is Love is living water. A lover is a soul of fire! The world revolves otherwise when FIRE WATER love."

"My interest in Sufism began when I was a college student. At the time, I was a rebellious young woman who liked to wrap several shawls of '-isms' around her shoulders: I was a leftist, feminist, nihilist, environmentalist, anarcho-pacifist ... I wasn't interested in any religion and the difference between 'religiosity' and 'spirituality' was lost to me. Having spent some time of my childhood with a loving grandmother with many superstitions and beliefs, I had a sense the world was not composed of solely material things and there was more to life than I could see. But the truth is, I wasn't interested in understanding the world. I only wanted to Change it."

"No reason to feel depressed about being depressed. A depression can be a golden opportunity to collect the pieces and build ourselves anew. Global Souls are always on the move, nomads at heart, connected to various cities, commuters between cultures, both from here and everywhere."

"One thing that has helped me personally in the past was to stop interfering with the people around me and getting frustrated when I couldn’t change them. Instead of intrusion and passivity, may I suggest submission? Some people make the mistake of confusing submission with weakness, whereas it is anything but. Submission is a form of peaceful acceptance of the terms of the universe, including the things we are currently unable to change or comprehend."

"Now, to appease his conscience when he did the balance of a long life, he had taken this strange journey and was home to a woman with such expectations. The outer walls were the color of ash cherchevetata windows and balcony railings were painted in two different colors - lighter and darker shade of gray. When discrete scenery around the double door were completed, the block shone with dazzling beauty. Most striking feature of the building, which at the insistence of Pavel Pavlovich Antipov was built in the style ar nuvo9, although it was no longer in vogue was that floors were completely different. The apartments on the ground floor, as if to compensate for the lack of balconies were much larger windows than others. As for the balcony, and they were different on each floor. terrace on the second floor were heavily exported forward in graceful semicircle, and those on the third floor were more retracted so that one could easily sit without being visible from the outside. Balcony on the fourth floor were like those of the second, except that instead of metal railings had curb decorated with embossed flowers, and at both ends were attached marble pots, in which you can grow plants. differences were so striking that one wondered Yet if the residents of these apartments they live in the same place. reliefs on the front façade to balance between decoration windows on the first and second floor, very eye-catching. Here in the circle was painted peacock with a small head and a huge body. His five items, two right, two left and one right on the head sticking out of different countries. One pointed toward the sky, and the other - the four cardinal directions. At the end of each feather was painted a large eye, beautifully finished with subtle touches that resemble eyelashes. In complete contrast, the head of the peacock was brought down. Directly below his feet in a faint oval frame was inscribed the initials of the spouses. - Elif Shafak , The Flea Palace"

"No matter who, what part of the world we live, live, until a sense of a lack of deep down we are moving. It's a basic thing we are afraid of not getting lost it in the back. Bilenimizde what is missing very little indeed."

"One would expect writers and artists to understand one another better than anyone else and to be more appreciative of one another's works. That, sadly, is not always the case. Writers Rarely say anything positive About each Other."

"Patience does not mean to passively endure. It means to be farsighted enough to trust the end result of a process. What does patience mean? It means to look at the thorn and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn. Impatience means to be shortsighted as to not able to see the outcome. The lovers of God never runs out of patience, for they know that time is needed for the crescent moon to become full."

"Perhaps it took a stranger to make a woman like her speak her mind."

"Patience is not to clench your teeth and do nothing. It means to be prescient enough to trust the end result of the process. What is patience? It means looking at the thorns and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn. Impatience means to be so myopic as to see the result. Whoever loves God remains patient, because he knows that it takes time incomplete moon to be full."

"Perhaps this is why lunatics have a harder time dating, not because they are off the wall but because it is hard to find someone who is willing to date so many people in one person."

"Rebelliousness is Not A good quality in A novice."