Best 70 quotes of Elif Shafak on MyQuotes

Elif Shafak

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    ​Âdem ile Havva: Âdem ile Havva, yasak elmanın tadına varınca, farklılıklarını gördüler ilk defa. Utanıp incir yapraklarıyla örtmek istediler çıplaklıklarını. Ama birinde bir, ötekinde üç incir yaprağı vardı. Sayı saymayı da öğrenince, bir daha hiç aynı olamadılar.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Armanoush le guardò una per una una, confusa. Era sollevata nel vedere che non avevano preso male la storia, ma a quel punto cominciava a dubitare che l'avessero davvero compresa. Certo, non si erano rifiutate di crederle e neppure l'avevano attaccata con argomentazioni contrarie: anzi, l'avevano ascoltata con grande attenzione e sembravano colpite, Ma era tutta lì la loro commiserazione? E, di preciso, lei cosa si era spettata da loro? Armanoush non sapeva cosa pensare, e si chiedeva se parlandone con un gruppo di intellettuali avrebbe ottenuto una reazione diversa. Lentamente si rese conto che forse si era aspettata un'ammissione di colpa, se non addirittura delle scuse. Però quelle scuse non erano venute, e non perché le sue ospiti non fossero partecipi, ma perché non vedevano nessun collegamento fra loro e il crimine che era stato perpetrato. Come armena, Armanoush incarnava lo spirito della propria gente da generazioni e generazioni, mentre a quanto pareva il popolo turco non possedeva la stessa nozione di continuità con la propria ascendenza. Armeni e turchi vivevano in ordinamenti temporali diversi. Per i primi, il tempo era un continuum in cui il passato viveva nel presente e il presente generava il futuro. Per i secondi, invece, il tempo sembrava essere una linea spezzata: a un certo punto il passato finiva, e da quel punto cominciava il presente, e in mezzo non c'era altro che uno strappo.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    As I went through all these experiences, I began to compile a list that wasn't written down in any book, only inscribed in my soul. To me these were as universal, dependable, and invariable as the laws of nature. Together they constituted The Forty Rules of the Religion of Love, which could be attained through love and love only.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    A tourist couple -- European by the look of them -- were taking pictures in the courtyard of the mosque. The woman had covered her head with one of the long scarves provided at the entrance. Someone -- perhaps a passer-by -- must have warned her that her dress was too short; she had tied another scarf around her waist to cover her legs above the knee. The man, by contrast, had sandals and Bermuda shorts apparently no one had seen as a problem.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Before passing through the gates of a town I've never visited, I take a minute to salute its saints - the dead and the living, the known and the hidden. Never in my life have I arrived at a new place without getting the blessing of its saints first. It makes no difference to me whether that place belongs to Muslims, Christians, or Jews. I believe that the saints are beyond such trivial nominal distinctions. A saint belongs to all humanity.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Believers favour answers over questions, clarity over uncertainty. Athiests, more or less the same. Funny, when it comes to God, Whom we know next to nothing about, very few of us actually say, 'I don't know.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    But the old maxim still applies: Where there is love, there is bound to be heartache.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Ceea ce nu poate fi pus în cuvinte poate fi priceput doar prin tăcere.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Certainty was to curiosity what the sun was to the wings of Icarus. Where one shone forcefully, the other couldn't survive. With certainty came arrogance; with arrogance, blindness; with blindness, darkness; and with darkness, more certainty.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Con le sue strade acciottolate, le torri merlate, le gallerie ad arcate, i bovindi e i portici scolpiti, Oxford pareva uscita da un libro di fiabe. Tutto, nel loro campo visivo, grondava storia; al punto che persino le caffetterie e i grandi magazzini sembravano parte integrante di quell’eredità secolare. A Istanbul, che pure era una città antichissima, il passato veniva trattato come un visitatore che si era indebitamente trattenuto troppo a lungo; mentre qui a Oxford era chiaramente l’ospite d’onore.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Dacă mai mult de trei oameni dormeau într-un spaţiu strâmt, mai devreme sau mai târziu, răsuflările lor se sincronizau. Poate era felul lui Dumnezeu de-a ne spune că, de-am putea renunţa la noi înşine, am fi în sfârşit în pas cu ceilalţi şi n-ar mai exista certuri.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Dans ce monde, la sérénité était mère de la chance et la chance mère de la félicité.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Daring to ‘know thyself’ means daring to ‘destroy thyself’. First, we must pull ourselves apart. Then, with the same pieces, we will assemble a new Self.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Did she ever love me as much as much as I love her? I don't think so. But I know she did love me in her own self-centered and self-destructive way.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Don't underestimate the good in you

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Doubts are good. It means you are alive and searching. One does not become a believer overnight. He thinks he is a believer; then something happens in his life and he becomes an unbeliever, after that, he becomes a believer again and then an unbeliever again, and so on. Until we reach a certain stage, we constantly waver. This is the only way forward. At each new step, we come closer to the Truth.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Dov’è che ti senti a casa?» domandò Peri. «A casa?» Shirin fece una smorfia sprezzante. «Ti svelo una regola universale: casa è dove sta tua nonna.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Each time I say good-bye to a place I like, I feel like I am leaving a part of me behind. I guess whether we choose to travel as much as Marco Polo did or stay in the same spot from cradle to grave, life is a sequence of births and deaths. Moments are born and moments die. For new experiences to come to light, old ones need to wither away.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Earth: the things that are solid, absorbed and still. Water: the things that are fluid, changing and unpredictable. Wind: the things that shift, evolve and challenge. Fire: the things that damage, devastate and distroy. The void: the things that are present through their absence

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Every winner is inclined to think he will be triumphant forever. Every loser tends to fear that he is going to be beaten forever. But both are wrong for the same reason: Everything changes except the face of god.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Faith is only a word if there is no love at its center, so flaccid and lifeless, vague and hollow - not anything you could truly feel.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    For despite what some people say, love is not a sweet feeling bound to come and quickly go away. In many ways the twenty-first century is not that different from the thirteenth century. Both will be recorded in history as times of unprecedented religious clashes, cultural misunderstandings, and a general sense of insecurity and fear of the Other. At times like these, the need for love is greater than ever. Because love is the very essence and purpose of life. As Rumi reminds us, it hits everybody, including those who shun love - even those who use the word "romantic" as a sign of disapproval.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    ...for love loves power. That is why we can suicidally fall in love with others but can rarely reciprocate the love of those suicidally in love with us.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    From one generation to the next some valuable information was lost along the way: that at different stages in her life a woman could need, would need, the help of her sisters, blood or not. As for my generation, we are so carried away with the propaganda that we can do anything and everything we want, our feet don’t always touch the ground. Perhaps we forget how to ask for help when we need it most.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    He tip-toed past the double bed that had been placed in a corner - wrought-iron headboard, embroidered pillows, amulets against the evil-eye and a satiny, cobalt-blue bedspread. Blue was Iskender's favourite colour. It was the colour for boys, which meant the sky was a boy. So were the rivers and lakes. And the oceans, though he had yet to see one.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    How terrible it was to still be mentally and emotionally attached to someone from whom you have been physically separated.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    I did the dirty work of others. Even God recognized the need for someone like me in His holy scheme when He appointed Azrael the Archangel of Death to terminate lives. In this way human beings feared, cursed, and hated the angel while His hands remained clean and His name unblemished. It wasn't fair to the angel. But then again, this world was not known for its justice, was it?

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    If a stone hits a river, the river will treat it as yet another commotion in its already tumultuous course. Nothing unusual. Nothing unmanageable. If a stone hits a lake, however, the lake will never be the same again.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    If you carry a sword, you obey the sword, not the other way round. Nobody can hold a weapon and keep their hands clear of blood at the same time.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    I know every single street in this town. And I love strolling these streets in the mornings, in the evenings, and then at night when I am merry and tipsy. I love to have breakfasts with my friends along the Bosphorus on Sundays, I love to walk alone amid the crowds. I am in love with the chaotic beauty of this city, the ferries, the music, the tales, the sadness, the colors, and the black humor.....

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Inside, I found three things: a silver mirror, a silk handkerchief, and a glass flask of ointment. These items will help you on your journey. use them when need be. If you ever lose faith in yourself, the mirror will show your inner beauty. In case your reputation is stained, the handkerchief will remind you of how pure your heart is. As for the balm, it will heal your wounds, both inside and outside.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    In the Ottoman times, there were itinerant storytellers called "meddah. " They would go to coffee houses, where they would tell a story in front of an audience, often improvising. With each new person in the story, the meddah would change his voice, impersonating that character. Everybody could go and listen, you know ordinary people, even the sultan, Muslims and non-Muslims. Stories cut across all boundaries. Like "The Tales of Nasreddin Hodja," which were very popular throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans and Asia. Today, stories continue to transcend borders

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Ironically, [living in] communities of the like - minded is one of the greatest dangers of today ́s globalized world. And it ́s happening everywhere, among liberals and conservatives, agnostics and believers, the rich and the poor, East and West alike. We tend to form clusters based on similarity, and then we produce stereotypes about other clusters of people. In my opinion, one way of transcending these cultural ghettos is through the art of storytelling

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Is that what depression is about-the sinking feeling that your connection to God is broken and you are left to float on your own in a liquid black space, like an astronaut who has been cut loose from his spaceship and all that linked him to Earth?

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    It had always struck her as odd that so many Turks memorized Arabic prayers without having the slightest idea what they were saying. Whether English or Turkish, Peri loved words. She held them in her palms like eggs about to hatch, their tiny hearts beating against her skin, full of life. She inquired into their meanings -- hidden and manifest; she studied their etymologies. But for countless believers, the words in the prayers were holy sounds one was expected less to penetrate than to imitate -- an echo without a beginning or an end, in which the act of thinking was subsumed by the act of mimicking.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    I thank Him for all the things He has both given and denied me, for only He knows what is best for me.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    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.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    It seemed to Jahan that, in truth, this world, too, was a spectacle. One way or another, everyone was parading. They performed their tricks, each of them, some staying longer, others shorter, but in the end they all left through the back door, similarly unfulfilled, similarly in need of applause.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    It was always like this. When you spoke the truth, they hated you. The more you talked about love, the more they hated you.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Loneliness was an inseparable part of being human.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Love is the reason. Love is the goal.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    May love always be with you, and you always surrounded by love

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Mourning is like virginity. You should give it to the one who deserves it most.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    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.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Not only are the depressed in a different place but their relationship to time is also warped. Depression recognizes only one time slot-the past-and only one manner of speech: “If only.” People who are depressed have very little contact with the present moment. They live persistently in their memories, resurrecting all that has come and gone. Like a hamster on a wheel or a snake that has swallowed its tail, they are stuck in a roundabout of gloom

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Once there was. Once there wasn't. A long, long time ago, in a land not so faraway, when the sieve was inside the straw, the donkey was the town crier,and the camel was the barber ... when I was older than my father so that I rocked his cradle upon hearing his cry ... when the world was upside down and time was a cycle that turned around and around so that the future was older than the past and the past was as pristine as newly sowed fields ... Once there was. Once there wasn't. God's creatures were as plentiful as grains and talking too much was a sin, for you could tell what you shouldn't remember and you could remember what you shouldn't tell....

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    One morning, the moon still high in the sky, Peri watched from her window a female student -- wearing earphones, her cheeks flushed -- running through the quad. She herself had tried it a few times back in Istanbul, despite the obstacles the city peppered along her trail. Here it was a privilege, of sorts, not to have to worry about broken pavements, potholes in the roads, sexual harassment, cars that did not slow down -- even at pedestrian crossings. The same day, she bought herself a pair of trainers.

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Patience does not mean to passively endure. It means to be farsighted enough to trust the end result of a process

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    People who would refuse to share their bread shared their insanity instead. -Three Daughters of Eve

  • By Anonym
    Elif Shafak

    Révéler ses secrets les uns après les autres avait aiguillonné son sentiment d'être isolée dans ce vaste monde.