They say in Syriac: ‘‘You cannot find restfulness unless you pay the price -unless you push yourself through to it.’’

They say in local Arabic: ‘‘Everything can be bought with money, but love is from above.’’

They say in local Kurdish: ‘‘ where you take your dough to the baker to bake it in his oven, they say, In order for your bread turn out better, give the baker an extra loaf.”

Therefore I say: Proverbs and maxims are like slogans which succinctly explain thoughts are various subjects, rues that definitely must be known, and meanings. They have deep sociological perspective. They contain philosophical meanings which develop associations and awareness.

The geographic region of Bethnahrin (Mesopotamia) carries a cultural synthesis which has been winnowed by the experiences of life and has passed through the sieve of centuries of reason. It is famous not only for its artistic and cultural creativity, but also for its wealth of proverbs. Our pithy sayings are skillfully formulated.

The words and sayings of the ancients make me what I am and educate me. They not only excite me, they open my horizons and show me the way. That is why I believe that it is necessary to internalize and live out the “polite words.”

In my opinion, when a person is squeezed into the whirlpool of negative expectations and prejudices and stays under the effects of delirium, he cannot hold himself back from making death-dives like a blind bat in the labyrinth of his personal thoughts. He is defeated by his own rage and ambition.

Just as originality begins by offering help to the originality of another, even so freedom begins by serving the freedom of another.  In an undemocratic culture the only freedom is the freedom to be a fanatic. Fanaticism is the enemy of originality, freedoms, empathy, conscience, kindness, loyalty, and mercy. It is an enzyme that blocks out all human values. Perhaps for this reason a wise man characterized fanaticism as “the childhood disease of humanity.”

For this reason, for the sake of social maturity and democratic culture we must offer our contributions and service to the enrichment of thought, without insulting, smearing or slandering others. 

Franz Kafka (1883-1924), one of the original thinkers of the modern world and a famous writer, said:

“Human beings have two prominent sins. The others come from these two: Impatience and laziness. They were driven from Paradise because of impatience; and because of laziness, they cannot return.”

Yusuf Beğtaş