Atatürk Quotes

“I have no religion, and at times I wish all religions at the bottom of the sea. He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap. 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.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“In the face of knowledge, science, and of the whole extent of radiant civilization, I cannot accept the presence in Turkey’s civilized community of people primitive enough to seek material and spiritual benefits in the guidance of sheikhs. The Turkish republic cannot be a country of sheikhs, dervishes and disciples. The best, the truest order is the order of civilization. To be a man it is enough to carry out the requirements of civilization. The leaders of dervish orders will understand the truth of my words, and will themselves close down their lodges [tekke] and admit that their disciples have grown up.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“We will acquire knowledge and science wherever they are to be found and we will stuff them into the head of every individual in the country. No limits, no conditions can be attached to knowledge and science.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“If I ever acquire great authority and power, I think that I would introduce at a single stroke the transformation needed in our social life. I do not accept and my spirit revolts at the idea entertained in some quarters that this can be done [only] gradually by getting the common people and the ulema to think at my level. After spending so many years acquiring higher education, enquiring into civilized social life and getting a taste for freedom, why should I descend to the level of common people? Rather, I should raise them to my level. They should become like me, not I like them. Nevertheless, there are some points here which should be gone into. It would be wrong to make a start before deciding them.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“Greatness means that you won’t try and please anyone, that you won’t deceive anyone, that you will discern the true ideal for the country, that you will strive for it, that everyone will turn against you and will try to make you change your course. You will have no means to resist. They will pile up endless obstacles in your path and you will surmount them, knowing all the time that you are not great, but little, weak, resourceless, a mere nothing, and that no one will come to your aid. And if after that they call you great, you’ll laugh at them.65”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“I have no religion, and at times I wish all religions at the bottom of the sea. He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“Sovereignty and kingship are never decided by academic debate. They are seized by force. The Ottoman dynasty appropriated by force the government of the Turks, and reigned over them for six centuries. Now the Turkish nation has effectively gained possession of its sovereignty… This is an accomplished fact… If those assembled here … see the matter in its natural light, we shall all agree. Otherwise, facts will still prevail, but some heads may roll.”
― Andrew Mango, Ataturk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey

“Atatürk was a competent commander, a shrewd politician, a statesman of supreme realism. But above all he was a man of the Enlightenment. And the Enlightenment was not made by saints.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“He then introduced a second, more delicate subject. Not only in villages, but also in towns, he had seen women cover their faces and their eyes as his party passed by. This habit, which caused particular discomfort in the heat of the summer, was, at least to some extent, the result of male selfishness, of scruples for purity. ‘But, friends, our women have minds too.’ So teach them morals and then stop being selfish. ‘Let them show their faces to the world, and see it with their eyes … Don’t be afraid. Change is essential, so much so that, if need be, we are prepared to sacrifice lives for its sake.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“But the crux of the matter was not the comic inappropriateness of Rumbold’s advice to the Turks. It was, as he observed on another occasion, that ‘the Kemalist Turk … thinks that he can run his country himself without any foreign intervention.’ The Allies could not believe that Orientals were capable of providing civilized government. Mustafa Kemal was determined to prove them wrong.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“History has proved incontrovertibly that success in great enterprises requires the presence of a leader of unshakeable capacity and power.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“As for Mustafa Kemal, he was to tell the English journalist Grace Ellison in 1923: ‘I don’t like Napoleon at all. He intruded his person into everything. He fought not for a cause, but for himself. That’s why he came to a bad end. It’s inevitable for such people.’45”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“Ankara’da toplanan milliyetçilerin vatanlarını sevdiklerinden kuşku duyulmuyordu. Ama hırs ve bireysel kıskançlıklar nedeniyle aralarında bölünmeler olduğu gibi, bu koşullar altında kolay anlaşılacak, ama etkileri kör edici bir biçimde yabancı düşmanlığına da kapılmışlardı. Birkaç yerel aşiret ağalığının dışında, Türk toplumunda kalıtsal aristokrasi geleneği yoktu; toplumun sosyolojik yapısı eşitliğe yönelikti. Yönetici seçkinlerin arasına girmenin yolu, her zaman eğitimle olmuştur. Yeni, Batılı öğretilerle eğitilmiş insanların sayısı az olduğundan, bu kişiler önlerine çıkan bütün işlerle uğraşmak zorundaydılar. Sonuç olarak da çoğu, kendisinin vazgeçilmez olduğuna inanıyordu. Ülkedeki asker politikacıların sayısı yeterinden fazlaydı.
Ayrıca kendilerini politika ve diplomasi konularında uzman olarak gören avukatların, doktorların, dişçilerin ve veterinerlerin sayısı hiç de az değildi. İşte Mustafa Kemal bu her şeyi bilen, kavgacı, inatçı, eşitlikçi kitleyi yönetmek zorundaydı. İnsanların arasından yalnızca yetenekli değil, aynı zamanda kendi liderliğine boyun eğecek olanları bulmak zorundaydı. Çoğunun bir kenara atılmış olması şaşırtıcı gelmemeli.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“In another play, he objected to the description of women as ‘an adornment’ and of love as ‘amusement’. ‘This is not how we look at women: they are the foundation of the nation,’ Atatürk wrote in the margin, and again, ‘To think of love as amusement is to devalue it.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“I believe that an important patriotic and national duty lies beyond it. We have to reform our domestic condition and prove by our actions that we are capable of becoming an active member of the community of civilized nations.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“A nation must be strong in spirit, knowledge, science and morals. Military strength comes last … Today it is not enough to have arms in hand in order to take one’s place in the world as a human being.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“Although largely unnoticed by the Allies, and still not well known in his own country, Mustafa Kemal had come out of the war in charge of the longest front held by the Ottoman armed forces. He was only 37, and still a Brigadier. But his professional reputation was high among Turkish commanders. True, they knew him as a difficult man to work with. He was ambitious and wilful. He had strong political views, and played politics to get his way. He was convinced he knew best. But then he usually did, for he had good sense, a rare quality in a world that had torn itself to pieces.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“Let’s be courageous in the matter of women. Let’s forget fear. Let’s adorn their minds with serious knowledge and science. Let’s teach chastity in a healthy, scientific way. Let’s give top priority to giving women honour and dignity.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“Religious thinkers have done their best to twist science and philosophy to back up their law.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“Atatürk was not in favour of entering the First World War so long as it was not clear how the situation would develop. He was in favour of avoiding hasty decisions, of waiting, of seizing favourable opportunities, of choosing the most suitable time and side, depending on military developments, if a decision was to be made to enter the war, and, in any case, of ensuring beforehand the best conditions for our existence and interests.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“What Enver and Pan-Islamists failed to realize was that Muslim solidarity was effective when it complemented self-interest and the instinct of self-defence. In Cyrenaica, the CUP aim of preserving the integrity of the Ottoman state coincided with the desire of the Arab tribes to remain in control of their lives. Not only Enver but many Western strategists drew from the Libyan war the conclusion that Muslim solidarity was a powerful force everywhere, at least potentially. Events in the course of the First World War were to prove them wrong.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“The Turkish army will have done its duty when it defends the country from foreign aggression and frees the nation from fanaticism and intellectual slavery.’ He added: ‘The Turkish nation has fallen far behind the West. The main aim should be to lead it to modern civilization.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“Mustafa Kemal was open about his ideas, his ambitions and his habits. He was also meticulous both in his staff work and in his dress. But the early years of revolutionary plotting revealed another side to his character. When he was not on top, he was critical of those who were. He alone deserved to be leader.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“Ambition, the feeling of self-preservation and patriotism all pointed in the same direction. In his childhood, as in his later career, Atatürk was not alone in his choices. But he was unique in his abilities.”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“Another lesson, which Mustafa Kemal was to remember vividly, was given by Lieutenant-Colonel Nuri. It concerned guerrilla warfare, a subject made topical by risings in the Ottoman state. ‘It is difficult to wage guerrilla war,’ Nuri declared, ‘but it is equally difficult to suppress it.’ He set the students a task based on a rising on the outskirts of the capital, saying, ‘In practical work one must aim at maximum verisimilitude. A rising can come from inside, as well as outside.’ It was a daring suggestion, which drew from Mustafa Kemal the question: ‘Can such guerrilla war come to pass?’ ‘It may,’ replied Nuri; ‘but enough said.’40”
― Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey

“Mustafa Kemal was convinced, and ordered that the theory should be taught at the new university in Ankara. He told a young French financial expert, Hervé Alphand, that his name was Turkish as it comprised the words alp (champion) and han (or khan, a ruler). In confirmation, Mustafa Kemal felt Alphand’s skull: it was, he decided, brachycephalic, the characteristic skull-shape of the Turkish race.11”
― Andrew Mango, Ataturk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey

“The new secular republic reflected Mustafa Kemal’s personal philosophy. In a book published in 1928, Grace Ellison quotes him as saying to her, presumably in 1926–7: I have no religion, and at times I wish all religions at the bottom of the sea. He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap. 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.31 Yet, like many rationalists, Mustafa Kemal was himself superstitious and sought omens in dreams.32 When he inspected the front in March 1922, during the War of Independence, he had portions of the Koran recited during evening gatherings with commanders.33 But now he was out of the wood.”
― Andrew Mango, Ataturk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey

“The assembly expressed its Islamic feelings on 14 September when it passed a law prohibiting alcohol. This did not stop Mustafa Kemal from obtaining his regular supply of raki.”
― Andrew Mango, Ataturk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey

“Harbord and his mission arrived in Sivas on 20 September. They were told by Mustafa Kemal that Turkey realized that it needed the aid of an impartial foreign country. ‘After all our experience we are sure that America is the only country able to help us,’ Mustafa Kemal acknowledged in a statement on 15 October.”
― Andrew Mango, Ataturk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey

“After visiting the Krupp factories, the Turkish party spent ten days in Berlin, where Vahdettin told a German journalist that women had begun to work in public in Turkey, and that although progress was slow, ‘we are making the effort to give equal rights to our women’.88 Mustafa Kemal was not alone in favouring women’s emancipation in the Ottoman state.”
― Andrew Mango, Ataturk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey