Istanbul Quotes

• If the Earth were a single state, Istanbul would be its capital.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Would Be, Earth, States

  "Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World" edited by Thomas F. Madden, Penguin Random House, November 7, 2014.

  216 Copy quote

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• Either I conquer Istanbul or Istanbul conquers me.

  Mehmed the Conqueror

  Conquer

  208 Copy quote

• İstanbul is a magical seal which unites Europe and Asia since the ancient times. Without a doubt, Istanbul is certainly the most beautiful place of the world.

  Gerard De Nerval

  Beautiful, Europe, Doubt

  189 Copy quote

• If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze on Istanbul.

  Alphonse de Lamartine

  Travel, Cities, Giving

  257 Copy quote

• Istanbul ... the constant beating of the wave of the East against the rock of the West.

  Susan Moody

  Europe, Cities, Rocks

  Susan Moody (1992). “Mosaic”, Dell Publishing Company

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• 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.

  Orhan Pamuk

  Thinking, Long Walks, Bosphorus

  175 Copy quote

• 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.

  Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

  Heart, Cities, Two

  114 Copy quote

• Istanbul is inspiring because it has its own code of architecture, literature, poetry, music.

  Christian Louboutin

  Literature, Architecture, Code

  99 Copy quote

• Holy Istanbul! Your name is the most enchanting one of all names which enchants me.

  Pierre Loti

  Names, Enchanting, Holy

  104 Copy quote

• If they say "you have your last chance to look at the world", I wish that look would from Çamlıca of Istanbul.

  Alphonse de Lamartine

  Wish, Looks, World

  107 Copy quote

• Istanbul, a universal beauty where poet and archeologist, diplomat and merchant, princess and sailor, northerner and westerner screams with same admiration. The whole world thinks that this city is the most beautiful place on earth.

  Edmondo De Amicis

  Beautiful, Princess, Thinking

  "Constantinople". Book by Edmondo De Amicis, 1877.

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• 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.

  Orhan Pamuk

  Appreciate, Tree, Grace

  Orhan Pamuk (2011). “Istanbul”, p.331, Faber & Faber

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• Istanbul owes its extraordinary situation to Golden Horn, Marmara Sea and The Bosphorus.

  Edmondo De Amicis

  Sea, Golden, Bosphorus

  55 Copy quote

• I found that the loudest fans in the world are in Istanbul.

  Roger Waters

  Fans, World, Found

  43 Copy quote

• Where would you like to go, what would you really like to do with your life? See Istanbul, Port Said, Nairobi, Budapest. Write a book. Smoke too many cigarettes. Fall off a cliff but get caught in a tree halfway down. Get shot at a few times in a dark alley on a Morrocan midnight. Love a beautiful woman.

  Ray Bradbury

  Beautiful, Book, Fall

  48 Copy quote

• 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."

  Lowell Thomas

  Cat, Men, Doubt

  41 Copy quote

• So far I had been travelling alone with my handbook and my Western Railway timetable: I was happiest finding my own way and did not require a liaison man. It had been my intention to stay on the train, without bothering about arriving anywhere: sight-seeing was a way of passing the time, but, as I had concluded in Istanbul, it was an activity very largely based on imaginative invention, like rehearsing your own play in stage sets from which all the actors had fled.

  Paul Theroux

  Men, Sight, Play

  Paul Theroux (1976). “The great railway bazaar: by train through Asia”

  34 Copy quote

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• The kind of power mothers have is enormous. Take the skyline of Istanbul - enormous breasts, pathetic little willies, a final revenge on Islam. I was so scared I had to crouch in the bottom of the boat when I saw it.

  Angela Carter

  Mother, Revenge, Islam

  "New Writing" edited by Malcolm Bradbury and Judy Cooke, 1992.

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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.

  Orhan Pamuk

  Thinking, Cities, People

  12 Copy quote

• The first thing I learned at school was that some people are idiots; the second thing I learned was that some are even worse.

  Orhan Pamuk

  School, People, Firsts

  FaceBook post by Orhan Pamuk from Mar 10, 2013

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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.

  Orhan Pamuk

  Firsts, Celebrate, Apartment

  FaceBook post by Orhan Pamuk from Jun 11, 2016

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• I went to Istanbul. I spoke to blind people, most of whom had lost their sight suddenly. I asked them to describe the last thing they saw.

  Sophie Calle

  Sight, People, Lasts

  "Sophie Calle; For The Last And First Time" by Evelyne Politanoff, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 16, 2012.

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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.

  Thandie Newton

  Pain, Way, Emotion

  Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

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• A man went to Istanbul, his first visit there. On his way to a business meeting, this man lost his way. He began raging at himself for getting lost, until a realization allowed him to transcend his ire. "How can I be lost? I've never been here before?" pp 104-105

  Melody Beattie

  Men, Realization, Getting Lost

  22 Copy quote

• So you set out to travel to Rome... and end up in Istanbul. You set off for Japan... and you end up on a train across Siberia. The journey, not the destination, becomes a source of wonder.

  Loreena McKennitt

  Journey, Japan, Rome

  16 Copy quote