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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
41 quotes
“Men, I am not ordering you to attack. I am ordering you to die. In the time that it takes us to die, other forces and commanders can come and take our place.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Orders to the 57th Infantry Regiment during the Gallipoli campaign (25 April 1915); as quoted in Studies in Battle Command by Combat Studies Institute, US Army Command and General Staff College, p. 89; also quoted in Tu…
“If you don't have ammunition, you have bayonets! FIX BAYONETS! GET DOWN!”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Instructions to his soldiers to answer an ANZAC attack on Chunuk Bair (25 April 1915)
“Our life here is truly hellish. Fortunately, my soldiers are very brave and tougher than the enemy.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Corinne Lütfü, from the Gallipoli peninsula (20 July 1915) as translated in Atatürk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey (2002) by Andrew Mango.
“Hattı müdafaa yoktur, sathı müdafaa vardır. O satıh bütün vatandır.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: His order to the Turkish army at the Battle of the Sakarya (26 August 1921); Turkish, as quoted in Bugünkü Türkiye (1937), by Stephan Ronart, p. 127
“Milletin hayatı tehlikeye maruz kalmadıkça, savaş bir cinayettir.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Adana Çiftçileriyle Konuşma" (16 March 1923); English translation as delivered in an address by Talat S. Halman (10 November 1995), quoted in The Turkish Times (1 December 1995)
“Our object now is to strengthen the ties that bind us to other nations. There may be a great many countries in the world, but there is only one civilization, and if a nation is to achieve progress, she must be a part of this civilization. The Ottoman Empire began to decline the day when, proud of her success against the West, she cut the ties that bound her to the European nations.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the press (29 October 1923), quoted in Vakur Versan, 'The Kemalist Reform of Turkish Law and Its Impact', in Jacob M. Landau (ed.), Atatürk and the Modernization of Turkey (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1…
“In human life, you will find players of religion until the knowledge and proficiency in religion will be cleansed from all superstitions, and will be purified and perfected by the enlightenment of real science.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech (October 1927); also quoted in Atatürk’ten Düşünceler by E. Z. Karal, p. 59
“You are the oldest democracy of the New World. We are the youngest democracy of the Old World. You, the great democracy of the New World, should take due note of your new sister democracy and should conceive its import. We are friends now, and we will be much closer friends in the future.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the American Ambassador to Turkey in 1927. As quoted in: Under Secretary Eugene V. Rostow (April 4, 1968): The United States and Turkey, Partners in World Security. Address made before the American-Turkish So…
“...O Turkish child of future generations! As you see, even under these circumstances and conditions, it is your duty to save the Turkish Independence and the Republic! The strength that you will need is present in the noble blood which flows in your veins!”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address To Turkish Youth (20 October 1927)
“Bu memleketin toprakları üstünde kanlarını döken kahramanlar! Burada dost bir vatanın toprağındasınız. Huzur ve sükun içinde uyuyunuz. Sizler Mehmetçiklerle yan yana koyun koyunasınız. Uzak diyarlardan evlatlarını harbe gönderen analar! Gözyaşlarınızı dindiriniz. Evlatlarınız bizim bağrımızdadır, huzur içindedirler ve huzur içinde rahat rahat uyuyacaklardır. Onlar bu toprakta canlarını verdikten sonra artık bizim evlatlarımız olmuşlardır.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A tribute to those ANZACs who died in Gallipoli (1934), this is inscribed on Atatürk memorial at Tarakena Bay in Wellington, New Zealand
“...Fakat bu prensipleri, gökten indiği sanılan kitapların dogmalarıyla asla bir tutmamalıdır. Biz, ilhamlarımızı, gökten ve gaipten değil, doğrudan doğruya hayattan almış bulunuyoruz. Bizim yolumuzu çizen; içinde yaşadığımız yurt, bağrından çıktığımız Türk milleti ve bir de milletler tarihinin bin bir fâcia ve ıstırap kaydeden yapraklarından çıkardığımız netîcelerdir.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement to the Turkish Grand National Assembly on 1 November 1937; also quoted in Atatürk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey (2002) by Andrew Mango
“Tarih yazmak, tarih yapmak kadar mühimdir. Yazan yapana sadık kalmazsa değişmeyen hakikat, insanlığı şaşırtacak bir mahiyet alır.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Hasan Cemil Çambel in T.T.K. Belleten (1939), Vol: 3, no: 10, p. 272, Turkish Republic Ministry of Culture
“A nation which makes the final sacrifice for life and freedom does not get beaten.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Ataturk (1944) by M. M. Mousharrafa, p. 130
“Yurtta Sulh, Cihanda Sulh.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Maxim which became the motto of the Republic of Turkey; quoted in many sources including, Atatürk (1963) by Uluğ İğdemir, p. 200; and Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus (2…
“Lasting peace is sought, it is essential to adopt international measures to improve the lot of the masses. The welfare of the entire human race must replace hunger and oppression. People of the world must be taught to give up envy, avarice and rancour.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in I. Milletlerarası Gençlik Kongresi [First International Youth Congress] (1988) by Selçuk University, p. 19
“Even before accepting the religion of the Arabs, the Turks were a great nation. After accepting the religion of the Arabs, this religion, didn't effect to combine the Arabs, the Persians and Egyptians with the Turks to constitute a nation. (This religion) rather, loosened the national nexus of Turkish nation, got national excitement numb. This was very natural. Because the purpose of the religion founded by Muhammad, over all nations, was to drag to an including Arab national politics.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Medenî Bilgiler ve M. Kemal Atatürk'ün El Yazıları [Civics and M. Kemal Atatürk's Manuscripts] (1998) by Afet İnan, p. 364
“Kralların ve padişahların istibdadına dinler mesnet olmuştur.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Medenî Bilgiler ve M. Kemal Atatürk'ün El Yazıları [Civics and M. Kemal Atatürk's Manuscripts] (1998) by Afet İnan, p. 438
“Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Macmillan Dictionary of Political Quotations (1993) by Lewis D. Eigen and Jonathan Paul Siegel, p. 424; also in Ataturk: First President and Founder of the Turkish Republic (2002) by Yüksel Atillasoy, p…
“The foundation of our religion is very strong. The material is strong as well, but the building itself was neglected for hundreds of years. As the plaster dropped down, none thought to replace it and none felt the need to reinforce the building. Quite the contrary: many foreign elements and interpretations, as well as empty beliefs, came along and damaged it still more.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Kemalizm, Laiklik ve Demokrasi [Kemalism, Laicism and Democracy] (1994) by Ahmet Taner Kışlalı
“Sesiniz, benim sesimdir. Unutmayınız!”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement made to those going to foreign nations or international conferences, as quoted by F. Rıfkı Atay; also quoted (in Turkish) in Atatürk ve çevresindekiler [Atatürk and his Entourage] (1995) by Kemal Arıburnu, p. …
“İstikbal göklerdedir.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Atatürk's comment on aerospace-aeronautics, as quoted in Modernism and Nation-Building: Turkish Architectural Culture in the Early Republic (2001), p. 126 by Sibel Bozdoğan
“Mankind is a single body and each nation a part of that body. We must never say "What does it matter to me if some part of the world is ailing?" If there is such an illness, we must concern ourselves with it as though we were having that illness.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Paul Wolfowitz in an address to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington, D.C. (13 March 2002)
“İki Mustafa Kemal vardır: Biri ben, et ve kemik, geçici Mustafa Kemal... İkinci Mustafa Kemal, onu "ben" kelimesiyle ifade edemem; o, ben değil, bizdir! O, memleketin her köşesinde yeni fikir, yeni hayat ve büyük ülkü için uğraşan aydın ve savaşçı bir topluluktur. Ben, onların rüyasını temsil ediyorum. Benim teşebbüslerim, onların özlemini çektikleri şeyleri tatmin içindir. O Mustafa Kemal sizsiniz, hepinizsiniz. Geçici olmayan, yaşaması ve başarılı olması gereken Mustafa Kemal odur.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Published in the Milliyet on 11 May 1933; also quoted in Ataturk: First President and Founder of the Turkish Republic (2002) by Yüksel Atillasoy, p. 19
“The nation has placed its faith in the precept that all laws should be inspired by actual needs here on earth as a basic fact of national life.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in A World View of Criminal Justice (2005) by Richard K. Vogler, p. 116
“Humankind is made up of two sexes, women and men. Is it possible for humankind to grow by the improvement of only one part while the other part is ignored? Is it possible that if half of a mass is tied to earth with chains that the other half can soar into skies?”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Atatürk" in Images of a Divided World (29 October 2006)
“[Turkish women] had lived free of the veil for 5,000 years, and had been covered only in the last 600 years.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Ataturk : An Intellectual Biography (2011) by M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, p. 38
“We did not win the war with prayers, but with the blood of our soldiers.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Explaining his dismissal of the imam assigned to the Turkish Grand National Assembly; as quoted in Ataturk : An Intellectual Biography (2011) by M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, p. 145
“Turkey's true master is the peasant.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in U.S.A. Toddler Importing as a Turkish Businessman (2011) by Thomas Chi, p. 27
“I do not leave any verses, dogmas, nor any moulded standard principles as moral heritage. My moral heritage is science and reason. What I have done and intended to do for the Turkish nation lies in that. Anyone willing to appropriate my ideas for themselves after me will be my moral inheritors provided they would approve the guidance of science and reason on this axis.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Kemalist Devrim ve İdeolojisi (1980) by İsmet Giritli, İstanbul Üniversitesi Yayınları, p. 13
“The torch that the Turkish nation holds in her hand and in her mind, while marching on the road of progress and civilisation, is positive sciences.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech on the tenth anniversary of the Republic, 1933
“Sovereignty and kingship are never decided by academic debate. They are seized by force. The Ottoman dynasty appropriated by force the government of the Turks, and reigned over them for six centuries. Now the Turkish nation has effectively gained possession of its sovereignty… This is an accomplished fact… If those assembled here … see the matter in its natural light, we shall all agree. Otherwise, facts will still prevail, but some heads may roll.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate, 1922; also quoted in Nutuk (1927) by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
“Science is the most real guide for civilisation, for life, for success in the world. To search for a guide other than science is absurdity, ignorance and heresy.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Atatürkçülük, Volume I, General Staff of the Republic of Turkey, Millî Eğitim Basımevi, 1984, p. 283
“The Republic of Turkey cannot be a country of sheikhs, dervishes, and disciples. The truest, most real order is the order of civilisation.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Victory belongs to those who can say 'Victory is mine'. Success belongs to those who can begin saying 'I will succeed' and say 'I have succeed' in the end.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Published in the Hakimiyet-i Milliye on 12 January 1925.
“To see me does not necessarily mean to see my face. To understand my thoughts, my feelings is to have seen me.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Armenians have no rights in this prosperous country. Your country is yours, it belongs to the Turks. This country was Turkish in history, therefore it is Turkish and will live as a Turk forever.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Published in the Hakimiyet-i Milliye on 21 March 1923.
“Why after my years of education, after studying the secular civilization and the socialization process, should I decent to the level of common people, I will make them rise to my level, let me not resemble them, they should resemble me!”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diary entry in Karlsbad on 6 July 1918; also quoted in Ataturk: Founder of Modern Turkey, a biographical documentary about Atatürk
“Now I have taken Hector's revenge!”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted as "As his aid-de-champ recounts, on August 30, 1922, when the Greek army was halted and pushed back to the Aegean sea, the great general jumped up and shouted: "Now I have taken Hector's revenge"." by Corsaro, F…
“Today the Soviet Union is a friend and an ally. We need this friendship. However, no one can know what will happen tomorrow. Just like the Ottoman and the Austro-Hungarian Empires it may tear itself apart or shrink in size. Those peoples that it holds so tightly in its grip may one day slip away. The world may see a new balance of power. It is then that Turkey must know what to do. Ally Soviets have under their control our brothers with whom we share language, beliefs and roots. We must be prepared to embrace them. Being ready does not mean that we will sit quietly and wait. We must get ready. How does a people get prepared for such an endeavour? By strengthening the natural bridges that exist between us. Language is a bridge... Religion is a bridge... History is a bridge... We must delve into our roots and reconstruct what history has divided. We can't wait for them to approach us. We must reach out to them.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Çankaya Mansion (29 October 1933); also quoted in Orta(daki) Asya Ülkeleri, Mustafa Balbay, Cumhuriyet Kitapları
“Religion is an important institution. A nation without religion cannot survive. Yet it is also very important to note that religion is a link between Allah and the individual believer. The brokerage of the pious cannot be permitted. Those who use religion for their own benefit are detestable. We are against such a situation and will not allow it. Those who use religion in such a manner have fooled our people; it is against just such people that we have fought and will continue to fight. Know that whatever conforms to reason, logic, and the advantages and needs of our people conforms equally to Islam. If our religion did not conform to reason and logic, it would not be the perfect religion, the final religion.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Kemalizm, Laiklik ve Demokrasi [Kemalism, Laicism and Democracy] (1994) by Ahmet Taner Kışlalı
“I once went through books and wanted to understand what philosophers said about life. Some of them saw everything as dark. "Since we are nothing and we will reach zero, there is no room for joy and happiness during our temporary life on earth," they said. I read other books, written by wiser men. They were saying: "Since the end is zero anyway, let us at least be joyful and cheerful as long as we live." For my own character I like the second view of life, but within these limits: A man who sees the existence of all mankind in his own person is pathetic. Obviously that man will perish as an individual. What is necessary for any man to be satisfied and happy as long as he lives is not to work for himself, but for those who will come after him. Only in this way can a man of understanding act. Complete pleasure and happiness in life can only be found in working for the honor, existence and happiness of future generations.”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conversation with Romanian Foreign Minister Victor Antonescu on 20 March 1937