Hakan > Hakan's Quotes

“A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.”
― William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

“Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
― Franz Kafka

“Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.”
― Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain.”
― Rene Descartes

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
― Edward Bernays, Propaganda

“In the 1950s kids lost their innocence.
They were liberated from their parents by well-paying jobs, cars, and lyrics in music that gave rise to a new term ---the generation gap.

In the 1960s, kids lost their authority.
It was a decade of protest---church, state, and parents were all called into question and found wanting. Their authority was rejected, yet nothing ever replaced it.

In the 1970s, kids lost their love. It was the decade of me-ism dominated by hyphenated words beginning with self.
Self-image, Self-esteem, Self-assertion....It made for a lonely world. Kids learned everything there was to know about sex and forgot everything there was to know about love, and no one had the nerve to tell them there was a difference.

In the 1980s, kids lost their hope.
Stripped of innocence, authority and love and plagued by the horror of a nuclear nightmare, large and growing numbers of this generation stopped believing in the future.

In the 1990s kids lost their power to reason. Less and less were they taught the very basics of language, truth, and logic and they grew up with the irrationality of a postmodern world.

In the new millennium, kids woke up and found out that somewhere in the midst of all this change, they had lost their imagination. Violence and perversion entertained them till none could talk of killing innocents since none was innocent anymore.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Recapture the Wonder

“Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do. More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them.”
― Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

“I have often noticed that we are inclined to endow our friends with the stability of type that literary characters acquire in the reader's mind. [...] Whatever evolution this or that popular character has gone through between the book covers, his fate is fixed in our minds, and, similarly, we expect our friends to follow this or that logical and conventional pattern we have fixed for them. Thus X will never compose the immortal music that would clash with the second-rate symphonies he has accustomed us to. Y will never commit murder. Under no circumstances can Z ever betray us. We have it all arranged in our minds, and the less often we see a particular person, the more satisfying it is to check how obediently he conforms to our notion of him every time we hear of him. Any deviation in the fates we have ordained would strike us as not only anomalous but unethical. We could prefer not to have known at all our neighbor, the retired hot-dog stand operator, if it turns out he has just produced the greatest book of poetry his age has seen.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

“Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.”
― John Dewey

“We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it.”
― Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

“Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.”
― John Dewey

“You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”
― Richard Branson

“Great losses are great lessons.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“Intelligence is more important than strength, that is why earth is ruled by men and not by animals.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“Politeness is the first thing people lose once they get the power.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“The most dangerous irony is, people are angry with others because of their own incompetence.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“One of the most interesting parts of writing is that you can think about it all of the time. Writers get their ideas all day and all night long, not just when they sit at their writing tables. No one will see your thoughts, but inside you head you can always wonder and ponder. "Hmmm...that's strange." Or, "I might write about that later." When you write, you notice things that other people do not. Artists and scientists do this too. To create, one must observe”
― edgardo h pangilinan

“CRITICISM is part of LEARNING and GROWTH. It means that you are taking INITIATIVES to learn something new and grow over from your current state. If you are not getting criticised, it means you are not taking enough RISK to learn something new and to grow.”
― Sanjeev Himachali

“The most beautiful sea
hasn't been crossed yet.
The most beautiful child
hasn't grown up yet.
Our most beautiful days
we haven't seen yet.
And the most beautiful words I wanted to tell you
I haven't said yet...”
― Nâzım Hikmet, Poems of Nazım Hikmet

“Living is no laughing matter:
You must take it seriously.
So much so and to such a degree
that, for example, your hands tied
behind your back,
your back to the wall
or else in a laboratory
in your white coat and safety glasses,
you can die for people –
even for people whose faces you’ve
never seen,
even though you know living
is the most real, most beautiful
thing.
I mean, you must take living so
seriously
that even at seventy, for example, you’ll
plant olive trees –
and not for your children, either,
but because, although you fear death you
don’t believe it,
because living, I mean, weighs heavier.

- "On Living”
― Nazim Hikmet

“And the most beautiful words ever spoken, I have not yet said to you.”
― Nazım Hikmet

“Alışkanlık getirir eski yerine hiçbir şey duymamış düşünmemiş anlamamış olmanın rahatlığını. (s. 165)”
― Nâzım Hikmet, Human Landscapes from My Country: An Epic Novel in Verse

“Hem şunu bil ki, oğlum,
hiç ve hiçbir meslek
hiç ve hiçbir mezhep
ve onun salikleri
ilahi esasatın dışında yaklaşamaz bize,
ve dost olamaz.
Sema ve zemini idare eden kuvvet
saadetini isteseydi insanların
derhal bahtiyar kılardı onları.”
― Nâzım Hikmet, Human Landscapes from My Country: An Epic Novel in Verse

“Günün rahatlık duygusu neden bu kadar kolay?
Geçmiş felaketi hatırlamak neden bu kadar güç?
Pozantı’da gardıfrendi Kartallı Kazım
sene üç yüz otus üç…

Gece gündüz cephelere sevkiyat gider.
Nerede başlayıp nerede biter?
Ocağında öam ağacı yakan tirenler
Hat boyları yanmış odun kokusu.
askeride hat boyunun tapısı.
Memetçik, memet,
Memetçik, Memet.

Dört cephe içinde koptu kıyamet.
Vagonların kırk kişilikse yapısı
seksen Memet, yüz Memet yüklü hepisi.
Kilitlenmiş vagonların kapısı.
Tirenler gidiyor Memetçik dolusu.
Memetçik, Memet,
Memetçik, Memet.

Kilitli vagonlarda yoktur merhamet…

O devir Pozantı son istasyondu.
Gardıfen Kartallı Kazım soyundu.
Çömeldi güne karşı, bitlenedursun.
Dağ taş Memet dolu, dağ taş sevkiyat.
Gidenler aç susuz, dönenler sakat.
Ölüm Allahın emri, açlık olmasa fakat.
Aç insan kurt olup saldırmazsa
açlık itten beter insanı elbet.
Memetçik, Memet,
Memetçik, Memet.

Bölük emininde yoktur merhamet…

Pozantıda bir dere içi, güneş yakıyor.
Gardıfen Kartallı Kazım bakıyor:
bir deri bir kemik Memet
düşmüş bıyıklar.
Memedin ayağında yarım çarıklar.
Memet yüzükoyun yatmış sayıklar.
Memet beygir fışkısından arpa ayıklar.
Arpayı götürüp derede yıkar.
Güneşte kurutup yiyecek Memet.
Dağ taş Memet dolu, dağ taş sevkiyat.
Ölüm Allahın emri, açlık olmasa fakat.

Memetçik, memet,
Memetçik, Memet.
Arpayı en fazla bir avuç verir
beygir fışkısında yoktur merhamet.

Makasın solunda kör demiryolu.
Kör demiryoluna çekilmiş vagon.
Vagonda oturmuş altı Alaman
Yüzleri kırmızı, kıçları şişman.
Makarna yiyorlar masa başında.
Belki de o kadar şişman değilller
ve lakin Kartallı öyle görüyor.
Memetçik Memet,
Memetçik, Memet.
Alaman olmakta var mı keramet?

Alaman’ın vagonuna köpeği nbağlı.
Tüyü boz, kulağı kesik, sağrısı yağlı.
Doydu makarnayı köpeğe verdi Alaman.
Makarna yer Alaman’ın köpeği bile.
Belki de makarna yemez her zaman.
Ve lakin Kartallı öyle görüyor.
Memetçik Memet,
Memetçik Memet.

Kör demiryolunda Memet yürüyor.
Yürüyor Memetçik köpeğe doğru.
Dört el üzerinde emekleyerek,
kah girip, kah duraklayarak,
başını, taşlayacakmış gibi saklayarak.
Memetçik, memet,
Memetçik, Memet.
Kaptı itin önünden makarnayı, kaçıyor:
Kaçıyor Memet arkasına bakmadan.
Aç insan kurt olup saldırmazsa
açlık itten beter insanı elbet.
Alkışlıyor Memedi Alaman.
Alaman’ın hoşuna gitti marifet.
Memetçik, Memet,
Memetçik, Memet.”
― Nâzım Hikmet Ran, Human Landscapes from My Country: An Epic Novel in Verse

“If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.”
― Noam Chomsky

“We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.”
― Noam Chomsky

“The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don't know how to be submissive, and so on -- because they're dysfunctional to the institutions.”
― Noam Chomsky

“There are reasons to be sad, disconsolate, bitter, but there is not a single reason to be hopeless.”
― Nazim Hikmet