Kazakhstan Quotes

“Cono felt embarrassed by the thought that he might have been just another pitiful orphan trying to turn his friends into family, and that he might be blinded by this need, a need that colored his whole life, that ache to offer worth to someone.”
― Victor Robert Lee, Performance Anomalies

“No person is just one person. Everyone is a crate of fruits, a crate of mixed fruits. The apple in there may have worms, a peach may be mildewed, a banana may be too green, a pear may be in perfect ripeness, and a melon may have the sweetest smell.”
― Victor Robert Lee, Performance Anomalies

“In my country, when we think about the future, we shake.”
― Victor Robert Lee, Performance Anomalies

“History is running very fast in my country.”
― Victor Robert Lee, Performance Anomalies

“Freedom is hard to come by.”
― Victor Robert Lee, Performance Anomalies

“She was like him, trying to embrace the moon while making her way in the world through instinct and drive that came only from within, because she had only herself.”
― Victor Robert Lee, Performance Anomalies

“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

“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

“David Reid and Myra Godwin are talking after the funeral of her ex-husband in Alma-Ta. Reid was an old lover of Myra:
"There was still a genuine affection between them, attenuated though it was by the years, exasperated though it was by their antagonism. Reid had neer been a man to let enmity get in the way of friendship.”
― Ken MacLeod, The Sky Road