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Sometimes I feel I have more faith in European ideals than some of my British or French friends. For them, it's a financial burden. For me, Europe is primarily about values, about fundamental rights, freedom, women's rights.

Elif Safak

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Elif Safak
Age: 53
Born: 1971
Born: October 25
Author
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
Straßburg
Elif Shafak
Women
British
Feel
Financial
Primarily
Sometimes
Europe
European
Feels
Rights
French
Friends
Fundamental
Values
Fundamentals
Freedom
Burden
Faith
Ideals

More quotes by Elif Safak

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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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perhaps it took a stranger to make a woman like her speak her mind.
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Whatever happens in your life, no matter how troubling things might seem, do not enter the neighborhood of despair. Even when all doors remain closed, God will open up a new path only for you. Be thankful!
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But let us not forget that cities are like human beings. They are born, they go through childhood and adolescence, they grow old, and eventually they die
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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.
Elif Safak
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Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness
Elif Safak
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No matter who we are or where we live, deep inside we all feel incomplete. It's like we have lost something and need to get it back. Just what that something is, most of us never find out. And of those who do, even fewer manage to go out and look for it.
Elif Safak
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Moments are born and moments die. For new experiences to come to life, old ones need to wither away.
Elif Safak
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Time is just an illusion. What you need is to live this very moment. That is all that matters.
Elif Safak
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The past lives within the present, and our ancestors breathe through our children.
Elif Safak
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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.
Elif Safak
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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.
Elif Safak
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Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven't loved enough.
Elif Safak
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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.
Elif Safak
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I believe in optimism of the will, pessimism of the intellect. But my hope is the people, the society, which is ahead of the government.
Elif Safak
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No reason to feel depressed about being depressed. A depression can be a golden opportunity to collect the pieces and build ourselves anew. Global Souls are always on the move, nomads at heart, connected to various cities, commuters between cultures, both from here and everywhere.
Elif Safak
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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!
Elif Safak
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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.
Elif Safak
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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.
Elif Safak
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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.
Elif Safak