Napoleon Bonaparte
Military Leader, Emperor
"If the Earth were a single state, Istanbul would be its capital."
Istanbul quotes
Istanbul
38 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Orhan Pamuk
Novelist, Screenwriter
"Life can't be all that bad,' i'd think from time to time. 'Whatever happens, i can always take a long walk along the Bosphorus."
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Statesman, Founder of Republic
"On the meeting point of two worlds, the ornament of Turkish homeland, the treasure of Turkish history, the city cherished by the Turkish nation, İstanbul, has its place in the hearts of all citizens."
Orhan Pamuk
Novelist, Screenwriter
"To savour Istanbul's back streets, to appreciate the vines and trees that endow its ruins with accidental grace, you must, first and foremost, be a stranger to them."
Lowell Thomas
Journalist
"In Istanbul I met a man who said he knew beyond a doubt that God was a cat. I asked why he was so sure, and the man said, "When I pray to him, he ignores me.""
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Istanbul quotes (page 1 of 2)
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"The first thing I learned at school was that some people are idiots; the second thing I learned was that some are even worse."
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"It was in Cihangir that i first learned Istanbul was not an anonymous multitude of walled-in lives - a jungle of apartments where no one knew who was dead or who was celebrating what - but an archipelago of neighbourhoods in which everyone knew each other."
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"I think perhaps it is a generational thing. I talk to younger people and they say, Where is this melancholy city you talk about My Istanbul is a sunny place."
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"National consciousness is truly a miraculous thing. When I am not in Turkey I feel even more Turkish than in Istanbul. But when I'm home my European side becomes more apparent."
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"The Turks can be killed, but they can never be conquered."
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"Istanbul is certainly in the process of transforming itself into an attractive cultural, tourist and financial center. But there are also millions of sad stories in this giant sea of immigration, poverty, misery and contradictions. So much anger, frustration and fury."
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"When it comes to emotions, we all feel pain in the same way, everyone, whether you're from Istanbul or Beijing."
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"Istanbul is a vast place. There are very conservative neighbourhoods, there are places that are upper class, Westernised, consuming Western culture."
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