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The Words That Come Out Of Our Mouths Do Not Vanish But Are Perpetually Stored In Infinite Space, And They Will Come Back To Us In Due Time.
-Elif Safak
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The Words That Come

Elif Safak
The Words That Come Out Of Our Mouths Do Not Vanish But Are Perpetually Stored In Infinite Space, And They Will Come Back To Us In Due Time.
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Topic
Space
Mouths
Infinite
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If You Want To Experience Eternal Illumination, Put The Past And The Future Out Of Your Mind And Remain Within The Present Moment.
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Perhaps This Is Why Lunatics Have A Harder Time Dating, Not Because They Are Off The Wall But Because It Is Hard To Find Soemone Who Is Willing To Date So Many People In One Person.
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In A Normal Democracy, You Protect The Individual From The Excessive Power Of The State. In Turkey, Power Elites Try To Protect The State - As If This State Were Fragile And Needed Protection - When In Fact, It's Too Powerful Already.
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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.
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Turkey Has A Very Young, Dynamic, Curious Population. In Europe, Facebook And Twitter Are Mostly About Sharing Daily Experiences While For Turkish People, Social Networks Are Political Platforms.
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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.
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Eternity Does Not Mean Infinite Time, But Simply Timelessness
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What I’m Saying Is, My Friends, One Ought To Be Able To Let Go. If A Path Does Not Please Us, Instead Of Insisting On Going That Specific Way, Of Making Our Selfishness The Guide, We Ought To Forsake. The Books We Cannot Write, The Films We Cannot Shoot, The Projects We Cannot Develop, The Jobs We Cannot Pursue And The People Who No Longer Love Us. Being Able To Let Go, At Times, Is The Most Beautiful Of All!
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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.
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Love Exists Within Each Of Us From The Moment We Are Born And Waits To Be Discovered From Then On.
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We Were All Created In His Image, And Yet We Were Each Created Different And Unique. No Two People Are Alike. No Two Hearts Beat To The Same Rhythm. If God Had Wanted Everyone To Be The Same. He Would Have Made It So. Therefore, Disrespecting Differences And Imposing Your Thoughts On Others Is Tantamount To Disrespecting God’s Holy Scheme.
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That Was The One Thing About The Rain That Likened It To Sorrow: You Did Your Best To Remain Untouched, Safe And Dry, But If And When You Failed, There Came A Point In Which You Started Seeing The Problem Less In Terms Of Drops Than As An Incessant Gush, And Thereby You Decide You Might As Well Get Drenched.
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Almost Half Of The Turkish Population Believes It Is Not Legitimate To Criticize The Government. Interestingly, This Correlates With The Number Of Supporters Of Erdogan's Government.
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Stop Running After The Waves. Let The Sea Come To You.
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Article Five: If You Have No Reason Or Ability To Accomplish Anything, Then Just Practice The Art Of Becoming.
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Many Analysts Compare Turkey With Countries In The Middle East, But I Think We Need To Compare It With Russia. Both Countries Come From A Tradition Of Empire, And Also From A Tradition Of The Strong State.
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I Remember A Time When It Was Ok To Make Fun Of Politicians And Powerful People. Now, It's Not Ok Anymore. We've Forgotten How To Laugh.
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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.” (p. 257).
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A Life Without Love Is Of No Account. 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.
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I Hunt Everywhere For A Life Worth Living And A Knowledge Worth Knowing. Having Roots Nowhere, I Have Everywhere To Go.
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The Past Lives Within The Present, And Our Ancestors Breathe Through Our Children.
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Submission Does Not Mean Being Weak Or Passive. It Leads To Neither Fatalism Nor Capitulation. Just The Opposite. True Power Resides In Submission. A Power That Comes From Within. Those Who Submit To The Divine Essence Of Life Will Live In Unperturbed Tranquility And Peace Even When The Whole Wide World Goes Through Turbulence After Turbulence.
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We Cannot Abandon This Rabbit Hole For Fear Of A Traumatic Encounter With Our Own Culture.
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After The Ankara Bombings On October 10, People Were Asked To Hold A Minute Of Silence, But Many Refused. Our Society Can't Even Unite In Grief To Honor The Victims. We've Lost Our Empathy. That's Maybe The Worst.
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Because Time Is A Drop In The Ocean, And You Cannot Measure Off One Drop Against Another To See Which One Is Bigger, Which One Is Smaller.
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The Iron Rule Of Prudence For An Istanbulite Woman: If You Are As Fragile As A Tea Glass, Either Find A Way To Never Encounter Burning Water And Hope To Marry An Ideal Husband Or Get Yourself Laid And Broken As Soon As Possible. Alternatively, Stop Being A Tea-glass Woman!
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Ways Of Loving From A Distance, Mating Without Even Touching-amor Platonicus! The Ladder Of Love One Is Expected To Climb Higher And Higher, Elating The Self And The Other. Plato Clearly Regards Any Actual Physical Contact As Corrupt And Ignoble Because He Thinks The True Goal Of Eros Is Beauty. Is There No Beauty In Sex? Not According To Plato. He Is After `more Sublime Pursuits.' But If You Ask Me, I Think Plato's Problem, Like Those Of Many Others, Was That He Never Got Splendidly Laid.
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When I Am Writing Political Op-eds, I Do Think Carefully About The Impact Of My Words. When I Am Writing Fiction, It's A Different Story. In My Fiction I Am More Reckless. I Don't Care About The Real World Until I Am Done With The Book.
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Our Politics Is Very Masculine, Very Aggressive, And It's Very Polarizing. And The Pace Of This Development Has Increased In Recent Years. Erdogan Is, In My Eyes, The Most Polarizing Politician In Recent Turkish Political History.
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Where There Is Love, There Is Bound To Be Heartache.
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God Is A Meticulous Clockmaker. So Precise Is His Order That Everything On Earth Happens In Its Own Time. Neither A Minute Late Nor A Minute Early. And For Everyone Without Exception, The Clock Works Accurately. For Each There Is A Time To Love And A Time To Die.
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I Would Like The Refugee Crisis To Become A New Beginning In The Turkish-european Relationship. But It Would Be Very Problematic If, During This Process, Human Rights Were Forgotten. Democracy Needs To Be The Priority.
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One Night, A Group Of Moths Gathered On A Shelf Watching A Burning Candle. Puzzled By The Nature Of The Light, They Sent One Of Their Members To Go And Check On It. The Scouting Moth Circled The Candle Several Times And Came Back With A Description: The Light Was Bright. Then A Second Moth Went To Examine It. He, Too, Came Back With An Observation: The Light Was Hot. Finally A Third Moth Volunteered To Go. When He Approached The Candle He Didn't Stop Like His Friends Had Done, But Flew Straight Into The Flame. He Was Consumed There And Then, And Only He Understood The Nature Of The Light.
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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 So Shortsighted As To Not Be Able To See The Outcome. The Lovers Of God Never Run Out Of Patience, For They Know That Time Is Needed For The Crescent Moon To Become Full.
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Love Cannot Be Explained, Yet It Explains All.
How Can You Blame Others For Disrespecting You When You Think Of Yourself As Unworthy Of Respect?
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Blame
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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.
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Either Grant Me The Bliss Of The Ignorant Or Give Me The Strength To Bear The Knowledge.
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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.
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The Words That Come Out Of Our Mouths Do Not Vanish But Are Perpetually Stored In Infinite Space, And They Will Come Back To Us In Due Time.
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Father, I Am From A Different Egg Than Your Other Children. Think Of Me As A Duckling Raised By Hens. I Am Not A Domestic Bird Destined To Spend His Life In A Chicken Coop. The Water That Scares You Rejuvenates Me. For Unlike You I Can Swim, And Swim I Shall. The Ocean Is My Homeland. If You Are With Me, Come To The Ocean. If Not, Stop Interfering With Me And Go Back To The Chicken Coop.
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Bountiful Is Your Life, Full And Complete. Or So You Think, Until Someone Comes Along And Makes You Realize What You Have Been Missing All This Time. Like A Mirror That Reflects What Is Absent Rather Than Present, He Shows You The Void In Your Soul—the Void You Have Resisted Seeing. That Person Can Be A Lover, A Friend, Or A Spiritual Master. Sometimes It Can Be A Child To Look After. What Matters Is To Find The Soul That Will Complete Yours. All The Prophets Have Given The Same Advice: Find The One Who Will Be Your Mirror!".
Spiritual
Children
Thinking
The Child Had Indeed Shut Up But All The Questions That Had Accumulated On His Tongue Circulated In His Mouth, Moved Through The Passages Of His Nose And Climbed Up From There To Tickle Into His Teardrop Ducts, So In His Moss Green Pupils, Curious, Insistent, Accusing Sparks Of Questions Continued To Light Up And Fade Away Like Fireflies Flitting About On Summer Nights.
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Feminists Are Now Being Vilified In Politics, Erdogan Used To Speak More Embracingly, Saying He Was The Leader Of Everyone, Whether They Voted For Him Or Not. He Sounds As If He Puts A Distance Between Himself And Half The Nation.
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Feminist
Leader
Words Are Heavy In Turkey, And Every Writer, Every Poet And Every Journalist Knows That, Because Of A Word, Because Of A Sentence, Because Of A Tweet Or Even A Retweet, You Can Be Sued, You Can Be Demonized By The Media And You Can Even Land In Prison.
Media
Land
Turkeys
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Doors
Being Thankful
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Lonely
Loneliness
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Moments Are Born And Moments Die. For New Experiences To Come To Life, Old Ones Need To Wither Away.
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Needs
Moments
If You Want To Destroy Something In This Life, Be It An Acne, A Blemish Or The Human Soul, All You Need To Do Is To Surround It With Thick Walls. It Will Dry Up Inside.
Wall
Motivation
Inspiration
Isn't Connecting People To Distant Lands And Culture One Of The Strengths Of Good Literature?
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People
Culture
Cities Are Erected On Spiritual Columns. Like Giant Mirrors, They Reflect The Hearts Of Their Residents. If Those Hearts Darken And Lose Faith, Cities Will Lose Their Glamour.
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Heart
Mirrors
We're Born Into A Certain Family, Nation, Class. But If We Have No Connection Whatsoever With The Worlds Beyond The One We Take For Granted, Then We Too Run The Risk Of Drying Up Inside. Our Imagination Might Shrink; Our Hearts Might Dwindle, And Our Humanness Might Wither If We Stay For Too Long Inside Our Cultural Cocoons. Our Friends, Neighbors, Colleagues, Family - If All The People In Our Inner Circle Resemble Us, It Means We Are Surrounded With Our Mirror Image.
Running
Mean
Heart
To Each His Own Way And His Own Prayer. God Does Not Take Us At Our Word. He Looks Deep Into Our Hearts. It Is Not The Ceremonies Or Rituals That Make A Difference, But Whether Our Hearts Are Sufficiently Pure Or Not.
Prayer
Heart
Differences
Time Is Just An Illusion. What You Need Is To Live This Very Moment. That Is All That Matters.
Needs
Matter
Moments
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.
Real
Love Is
Names
The Digital World Is Developing With Such Force And Such A Pace That You Simply Can't Ban Or Control It. People Want To Be Globally Connected.
People
Pace
World
Do Not Go With The Flow. Be The Flow.
Flow
Forty
Turkey In General Became Too Involved With What Is Happening In Egypt And In Syria. Some Politicians With Neo-ottoman Dreams Developed This Idea Of Being A Major Player In The Middle East, Which Hasn't Gone As Expected.
Dream
Player
Egypt
Perhaps It Took A Stranger To Make A Woman Like Her Speak Her Mind.
Mind
Like Her
Speak
I See Two Opposite Tendencies In Turkish Society: People Feel Demoralized, They Lose The Interest In Politics And Retreat To Their Private Lives; Or They Become Very Angry And Even More Politicized, And Radicalized. Both Trends Are Troublesome.
Opposites
Two
People
Even A Speck Of Love Should Not Go Unappreciated, Because, As Rumi Said, Love Is The Water Of Life.
Love Is
Water Of Life
Should
Hell Is In The Here And Now. So Is Heaven. Quit Worrying About Hell Or Dreaming About Heaven, As They Are Both Present Inside Us 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.
Dream
Falling In Love
Hate
Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.


2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.


2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.


2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.


3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.


3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.


3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.



4. Proper Usage of Quotes


4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.


4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.


4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).


5. Common Mistakes to Avoid


5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.


5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.


5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.



6. Quotes in Different Contexts


6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.


6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.


6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.



7. Punctuation and Formatting


Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:


Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.


Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.


Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.



8. Ethical Considerations


Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes


Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.



Conclusion


Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.


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