Nazim Hikmet Quotes & Sayings

There are reasons to be sad, disconsolate, bitter, but there is not a single reason to be hopeless. — Nazim Hikmet

You Are My Drunkenness
You are my drunkenness ...
I did not sober up, as if I can do that;
I don't want to anyway.
I have a headache, my knees are full of scars
I am in mud all around
I struggle to walk towards your hesitant light. — Nazim Hikmet

To live! like a tree alone and free,
To live! like a forest in brotherhood/sisterhood ... — Nazim Hikmet

That's how it goes, my friend. The problem is not falling a captive, it's how to avoid surrender. — Nazim Hikmet

Separation isn't time or distance
it's the bridge between us
finer than silk thread sharper than swords — Nazim Hikmet

THE GREAT HUMANITY
The great humanity is the deck-passenger on the ship
third class on the train
on foot on the causeway
the great humanity.
The great humanity goes to work at eight
marries at twenty
dies at forty
the great humanity.
Bread is enough for all except the great humanity
rice the same
sugar the same
cloth the same
books the same
are enough for all except the great humanity.
The great humanity has no shade on his soil
no lamp on his road
no glass on his window
but the great humanity has hope
you can't live without hope. — Nazim Hikmet

Being captured is beside the point
the point is not to surrender — Nazim Hikmet

Loneliness feels like prison. — Nazim Hikmet

LET'S GIVE THE WORLD TO THE CHILDREN
Let's give the world to the children just for one day
like a balloon in bright and striking colours to play with
let them play singing among the stars
let's give the world to the children
like a huge apple like a warm loaf of bread
at least for one day let them have enough
let's give the world to the children
at least for one day let the world learn friendship
children will get the world from our hands
they'll plant immortal trees — Nazim Hikmet

We'll dive into the earth together. And if one day a wild flower finds water and springs up from that piece of earth, its stem will have two blooms for sure: one will be you, the other me. — Nazim Hikmet

I know you can't wash in the same river even once
I know the river will bring new lights that you will not see
I know we live slightly longer than a horse and not nearly as long as a crow
I know this has troubled people before and will trouble those after me
I know all this has been said a thousand times before and will be said after me
I didn't know I like the sky
cloudy or clear
the blue vault that Andrei watched on his back on the battlefield at Borodino
... — Nazim Hikmet

... and the most beautiful words ever spoken, I have not yet said to you. — Nazim Hikmet

However and wherever we are, we must live as if we will never die. — Nazim Hikmet

Thinking of you is pretty, hopeful,
It is like listening to the most beautiful song
From the most beautiful voice on earth ...
But hope is not enough for me any more,
I don't want to listen to songs any more,
I want to sing. — Nazim Hikmet

Welcome baby it's your turn to live they're laying for you chicken pox whooping cough smallpox malaria TB heart disease cancer and so on unemployment hunger and so on train wrecks bus accidents plane crashes on-the-job injuries earthquakes floods droughts and so on heartbreak alcoholism and so on nightsticks prisons doors and so on they're laying for you the atom bomb and so on welcome baby it's your turn to live they're laying for you socialism communism and so on. — Nazim Hikmet

Books must be wind and pull the curtains. — Nazim Hikmet

The strangest of our powers
Is the courage to live
Knowing that we will die,
Knowing nothing more true. — Nazim Hikmet

Looking at this insolent earth, you hear the first battle cry of our species- trap it under a rock and together, screaming, attack and destroy it, as if killing a mammoth. — Nazim Hikmet

When the light of the star which flows into my eyes as a drop of gold first pierced the darkness in space, there was not a single eye on earth looking at the sky ... — Nazim Hikmet

Living is no laughing matter: you must live with great seriousness like a squirrel for example - I mean without looking for something beyond and above living, I mean living must be your whole occupation. — Nazim Hikmet

To visit a museum is fine,
to be a museum piece is terrible!

- Gioconda and Si-Ya-U — Nazim Hikmet

I'm only seven, although I died In Hiroshima long ago, I'm seven now as I was then - When children die, they do not grow. — Nazim Hikmet

The most beautiful sea
hasn't been crossed yet.
The most beautiful child
hasn't grown up yet.
The most beautiful days
we haven't seen yet.
And the most beautiful words I wanted to tell you
I haven't said yet ... — Nazim Hikmet

At eighteen you sleep without memories. — Nazim Hikmet

We can only reach our goal amid bloodletting — Nazim Hikmet

I come and stand at every door
But none can hear my silent tread
I knock and yet remain unseen
For I am dead for I am dead

I'm only seven though I died
In Hiroshima long ago
I'm seven now as I was then
When children die they do not grow

My hair was scorched by swirling flame
My eyes grew dim my eyes grew blind
Death came and turned my bones to dust
And that was scattered by the wind

I need no fruit I need no rice
I need no sweets nor even bread
I ask for nothing for myself
For I am dead for I am dead

All that I need is that for peace
You fight today you fight today
So that the children of this world
Can live and grow and laugh and play

- The Girl Child — Nazim Hikmet

At eighteen the heart shoots like a pebble from a slingshot and the head doesn't sit on the shoulder. — Nazim Hikmet

And don't forget, a prisoner's wife must always think good thoughts. — Nazim Hikmet

I've never regretted I was born too soon. I'm proud to be a child of the twentieth century. I'm satisfied to join its ranks on our side and fight for a new world ... — Nazim Hikmet

My country or the stars Or my youth, what's farthest? — Nazim Hikmet

At eighteen you don't think about memories, you tell them. — Nazim Hikmet

The life of man is long, perhaps longer than necessary Or perhaps it is shorter than necessary? — Nazim Hikmet