Lispenard Ottoman Quotes

Peace is an Excellent Thing, and War is a great Misfortune. But there are Many things More valuable than Peace, and many Things Much worse than war. The maintenance of the Ottoman Empire belongs to the First Class, the Occupation of Turkey by Russia belongs to the Second. ~ Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

The Ottoman Empire was in decline, held back from modernization by a conservative Muslim priesthood. ~ Ken Follett

Ayşe has always admired the Ottoman talent for euphemism. The Auspicious Event was the massacre and execution of ten thousand Janissaries. Bodies had been heaped in the Hippodrome, rotting in the June heat. The more perfumed the language, the more brutal the repression. ~ Ian McDonald

In the wake of World War I, however, the British and French took out their imperial pens and carved up what remained of the Ottoman dynastic empire, and created an assortment of nation-states in the Middle East modeled along their own. The borders of these new states consisted of neat polygons - with right angles that were always in sharp contrast to the chaotic reality on the ground. In the Middle East, modern Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan and the various Persian Gulf oil states all traced their shapes and origins back to this process; even most of their names were imposed by outsiders. In other words, many of the states in the Middle East today - Egypt being the most notable exception - were not willed into existence by their own people or developed organically out of a common historical memory or ~ Thomas L. Friedman

When you are young, you cannot imagine what it is like to be old. When you are old, you often reflect on bygone youthful days when you felt invincible and the world was yours to explore - Huja ~ Rehan Khan

Sometimes you arrive in a place, not where you want to be, but where you need to be - Konjic ~ Rehan Khan

Be careful not to trip over the ottoman. ~ Dick Van Dyke

The hopelessness of the Turkish Government should make me witness with delight its being swept out of the countries which it tortures. Next to the Ottoman Government nothing can be more deplorable and blameworthy than jealousies between Greek and Slav and plans by the States already existing for appropriating other territory. Why not Macedonia for the Macedonians as well as Bulgaria for the Bulgarians and Serbia for the Serbians? ~ William E. Gladstone

The cutting off of Russia with all its consequences, the vain and sanguinary tragedy of Gallipoli, the diversion of Allied strength in the campaigns of Mesopotamia, Suez, and Palestine, the ultimate breakup of the Ottoman Empire, the subsequent history of the Middle East, followed from the voyage of the Goeben. Other ~ Barbara W. Tuchman

In life I have done many things, proclaimed even more, most of which will be forgotten. What people will treasure dearly, is how I stirred their emotions and brought out the best in them - Konjic ~ Rehan Khan

Life is full of risks, but the biggest one is doing nothing at all - Anver ~ Rehan Khan

Hope is like a candle burning within my heart. It flickers and wanes, but please don't blow it out - Gurkan ~ Rehan Khan

She seated herself on a dark ottoman with the brown books behind her, looking in her plain dress of some thin woollen-white material, without a single ornament on her besides her wedding-ring, as if she were under a vow to be different from all other women; and Will sat down opposite her at two yards' distance, the light falling on his bright curls and delicate but rather petulant profile, with its defiant curves of lip and chin. Each looked at the other as if they had been two flowers which had opened then and there. Dorothea for the moment forgot her husband's mysterious irritation against Will: it seemed fresh water at her thirsty lips to speak without fear to the one person whom she had found receptive; for in looking backward through sadness she exaggerated a past solace. ~ George Eliot

An act of kindness, be it a sweet word, or a supporting hand, is never wasted upon those with nothing in the world - Konjic ~ Rehan Khan

No!" Lada shook her head, eyes still wild. "I cannot go in there! If a woman enters the harem complex, she belongs to the sultan!"
Mehmed peered out the window they had climbed through, to make sure their path was clear. "I would not hold you to that, Lada, and - "
"It would not matter! Everyone would know, I would be labeled your concubine, and - "
Radu took her hand, which still hung in the air pointing accusingly at Mehmed, and squeezed it in his own. "And you would be unmarriageable? What a tragedy. I know how dearly you treasured the hope of marrying some minor Ottoman noble, dear sister."
She finally met his eyes, hers still feverish and frenzied. "But I would be his."
"I think our Mehmed is smart enough to know he could never claim you. Right?"
Radu's tone was light, and he turned to Mehmed with a playful smile. Perhaps it was the dimness of the room, or the stress of the night, but Mehmed's face was clouded with…disappointment? Hurt? Then a tight, false smile took its place, and he nodded. Radu's own chest felt equally tight with anxiety and fear and a twisting, bitter sense of jealousy. ~ Kiersten White

I should definitely sleep in another room."
"No," she stated firmly. Before she could change her mind, she crossed to the bed, slipped beneath the covers, then looked at him expectantly.
"Where is Jax?" he asked, unmoving.
"Downstairs. He liked to sit on the ottoman at night and watch out the back window for raccoons and opossums. Why?"
"He's the only chaperone available to us. ~ Dianne Duvall

Power is a corrupting force, as is the fear of losing it. I cannot wield this power - Konjic ~ Rehan Khan

If Palestine had been invaded by Buddhists, or post-Ottoman Turkey, resistance would have been just as strong. ~ Anonymous

The difference between slaves in Roman and Ottoman days and today's employees is that slaves did not need to flatter their boss. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Accepting things can materialise in unforeseen ways brings a kind of inner calm. ~ Rehan Khan

Turkey has never been colonized, so it remained as an independent nation after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. ~ Mustafa Akyol

For the young Turks, soon to assume power and build a nation-state on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, Japan provided clear inspiration. These envious outside observers of Japan's progress did not see the extreme violence of the country's makeover. Nor did they notice the trends towards conformity, militarism and racism that were later to make Japan a ominously successful rival to Europe's imperialist nations- by 1942, Japan would occupy or dominate a broad swathe of the Asian mainland, from the Aleutian Islands in the north-east to the borders of India, after booting out almost all the European masters in between. For many Asians in the late nineteenth century, the proof of Japan's success lay in the extent to which it could demand equality with the West; and, here, the evidence was simply overwhelming for people who had tried to do the same and had failed miserably. ~ Pankaj Mishra

The Balkans I know is the Balkans from below: a space of bogoumils- these medieval heretics who fought against the Crusades and churches- and a place of anti-Ottoman resistance; a home to hajduks and klephts, pirates and rebels; a refuge of feminists and socialists, of antifascist and partisans; a place of dreamers of all sorts struggling both against provincial "peninsularity" as well as against occupations, foreign interventions and that process which is now, in a strange inversion of history, often described with that fashionable phrase, "balkanization." (p.11) ~ Andrej Grubacic

When did women whose looks are not their living start conducting themselves like the simpering inmates of an Ottoman empire seraglio? ~ Julie Burchill

Coffee was first introduced by Yemeni Muslims. When Ottoman Empire grew, coffee spread to Istanbul and from there to the rest of Europe. ~ Firas Alkhateeb

With his decision to use force against the violent extremists of the Islamic State, President
Obama ... is stepping once again - and with understandably great reluctance - into the chaos
of an entire civilization that has broken down. Arab civilization, such as we knew it, is all but
gone. The Arab world today is more violent, unstable, fragmented and driven by extremism -
the extremism of the rulers and those in opposition-than at any time since the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire a century ago. ~ Hisham Melhem

But worse things were about to be found in the bedroom: on the jeweller's wife's ottoman, in a casual pose, sprawled a third party- namely, a black cat of uncanny size, with a glass of vodka in one paw and a fork, on which he had managed to spear a pickled mushroom, in the other. , The Master and Magarita ~ Mikhail Bulgakov

I don't believe in ghosts and neither should you, Kingsley."
"Why not? I've been in love with a ghost for thirty years."
Kingsley strolled over to the armchair and sat on the ottoman between the other man's knees. Soren narrowed his eyes at him.
"The body's not even cold yet. Eleanor's been gone one day and you're already trying to get me into bed again?"
"Again?" Kingsley laughed and rolled his eyes. "Always. Are you surprised?"
Soren shrugged. "Not really. ~ Tiffany Reisz

Vision, of the Ittihadists and, by extension, Kemal Ataturk, did not include the non-Muslim population of what was once the Ottoman Empire. ~ Eric Bogosian

From May until October, the Ottoman Government pursued methodically a plan of extermination far more hellish than the worst possible massacre. Orders for deportation of the entire Armenian population to Mesopotamia were dispatched to every province of Asia Minor. These orders were explicit and detailed. No hamlet was too insignificant to be missed. The news was given by town criers that every Armenian was to be ready to leave at a certain hour for an unknown destination. ~ Herbert Adams Gibbons