Kazakh Quotes

“Returning from his flocks, pleased with his ride.
Again in the aul appears the bai.
His horse goes on with an easy stride,
He sits and smiles upon it, hat awry.”
― Abai Kunanbayev

“Если бы казахи той эпохи (1680-1780) могли бы что-то услышать о «славном парне» и браконьере, по имени Робин Гуд, они однозначно бы считали его великим батыром.”
― Radik Temirgaliev

“There was no such thing as Kazakhstan. It was just a chunk of Soviet Union.
I had to build a country, to establish an army, our own police, our internal life, everything from roads to the constitution. I had to change the minds of the people 180 degrees, from totalitarian regime to freedom, from state property to private property.
Nobody wanted to understand that. My comrades from the communist party were against me. I had to train myself too...
I wasn't raised with democracy and freedom of speech.”
― Nursultan Nazarbayev

“Some people approached me saying they would like to raise a monument to me like they do in Turkmenistan for Turkmenbashy, I asked, what for? Astana is my memorial.”
― Nursultan Nazarbayev

“From the Volga to the Irtysh, from the Urals to Afghanistan, a solid mass of us lived, Kazakhs.
Now when different people penetrate into our midst, why are we not able to live as such, a Kazakh nation?”
― Ahmed Baitursinuli

“We are all Turks.”
― Nursultan Nazarbayev

“They started conquering the world, then they over-stretched themselves and they collapsed. Today's Turkish people are those who left the territory of modern Kazakhstan and settled in the country where they live now.
When we meet each other, we always remember this.”
― Nursultan Nazarbayev

“Eat well before you entertain your guests.”
― A Kazakh proverb

“Russian authorities distinguished between steppe Islam, suffused, they believed, with Shamanism, and the Islam of the Uzbek cities, which they considered hotbeds of fanaticism. Catherine viewed Islam as a "civilizing" tool that would first make Kazakhs good Muslims, then good citizens, eventually good Christians. She used Tatar teachers, her subjects, who could travel among the nomads and speak their language, to preach a more "correct" Islam. The Tatars became an important factor in implanting in the steppe an Islam that adhered more closely to traditional Muslim practices.”
― Peter B. Golden, Central Asia in World History