Quotes

The cornerstone of education is an easy system of reading and writing. The key to this is the new Turkish alphabet based on the Latin script.

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

The government's most creative and significant duty is education.

We shall make the expansion and rise of Turkish culture in every era the mainstay of the Republic.

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.

The major challenge facing us is to elevate our national life to the highest level of civilization and prosperity.

In order to raise our new Turkey to the level that she is worthy of, we must, under all circumstances, attach the highest importance to the national economy.

This nation has never lived without independence. We cannot and shall not live without it. Either independence or death.

Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the people.

We must liberate our concepts of justice, our laws and legal institutions from the bonds which hold a tight grip on us although they are incompatible with the needs of our century.

There are two Mustafa Kemals. One the flesh-and-blood Mustafa Kemal who now stands before you and who will pass away. The other is you, all of you here who will go to the far corners of our land to spread the ideals which must be defended with your lives if necessary. I stand for the nation's dreams, and my life's work is to make them come true.