Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Quotes

The Turkish nation's character is noble
The Turkish nation is industrious
The Turkish nation is intelligent.

Men, I am not ordering you to attack. I am ordering you to die. In the time that it takes us to die, other forces and commanders can come and take our place.

Freedom and independence is my character.

Science is the most reliable guide in life.

The evils which sapped the nation's strength had all been wrought in the name of religion.

[Turkish women] had lived free of the veil for 5,000 years, and had been covered only in the last 600 years.

He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap.

Turkey's true master is the peasant.

Peace at Home, Peace in the World

A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others.

Sovereignty and the right to rule cannot be conferred on anyone no matter who ... as a result of an academic discussion. Sovereignty is acquired by force and power and violence.

Sovereignty is not given, it is taken.

Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women.

A nation which makes the final sacrifice for life and freedom does not get beaten.

Freedom and independence form my character.

The nation has placed its faith in the precept that all laws should be inspired by actual needs here on earth as a basic fact of national life.

It was when I entered the military preparatory school and put on its uniform, that a feeling of strength came to me, as if I had become master of my own destiny.

If a society does not wage a common struggle to attain a common goal with its women and men, scientifically there is no way for it to become civilized or developed.

Concepts of well-being for countries, for peoples and for individuals are changing. In such a world, to argue for rules that never change would be to deny the reality found in scientific knowledge and reasoned judgment.

The future is in the skies.

Those who use religion for their own benefit are detestable. We are against such a situation and will not allow it. Those who use religion in such a manner have fooled our people; it is against just such people that we have fought and will continue to fight.

Justice is the infrastructure of proprietorship.

The biggest battle is the war against ignorance.

Unless a nation's life faces peril, war is murder.

Mankind is a single body and each nation a part of that body. We must never say "What does it matter to me if some part of the world is ailing?" If there is such an illness, we must concern ourselves with it as though we were having that illness.

What a lovely drink this is, it makes one want to be a poet

Every nation has the right to demand proper treatment and no country should violate the territory of any other country.

If one day, my words are against science, choose science.

Where there is no freedom, there is death and destruction.

I will lead my people by the hand along the road until their feet are sure and they know the way. Then they may choose for themselves and rule themselves. Then my work will be done.

These left-overs from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse, from their homes and massacred, have been restive under the Republican rule.

A youth with wings are the assurance of our nation's future. We must start to work right away and make progress so that; if one day Westerners leave their footprints on the moon, we shall place a Turkish one among those.

No country is free unless it is democratic.

Victory is for those who can say "Victory is mine". Success is for those who can begin saying "I will succeed" and say "I have succeeded" in the end.

In human life, you will find players of religion until the knowledge and proficiency in religion will be cleansed from all superstitions, and will be purified and perfected by the enlightenment of real science.

To see me does not necessarily mean to see my face. To understand my thoughts is to have seen me.

Persons, who knows that, that they will not be able to rest along the way when they took a path, will never get tired.

The supreme guide in life is knowledge.

Lasting peace is sought, it is essential to adopt international measures to improve the lot of the masses. The welfare of the entire human race must replace hunger and oppression. People of the world must be taught to give up envy, avarice and rancour.

A nation devoid of art and artists cannot have a full existence.

We do not consider our principles as dogmas contained in books that are said to come from heaven. We derive our inspiration, not from heaven, or from an unseen world, but directly from life.

You, the sons and daughters, the future of Turkiye, even under such circumstances and conditions, your duty is to save the Turkish independence and the Republic, you will find the power you need in the noble blood in your veins.

My people are going to learn the principles of democracy the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go. Let them worship as they will, every man can follow his own conscience provided it does not interfere with sane reason or bid him act against the liberty of his fellow men.