Balk Quotes

1. "Turkey is a European country, an Asian country, a Middle Eastern country, Balkan country, Caucasian country, neighbor to Africa, Black Sea country, Caspian Sea, all these."
Author: Ahmet Davutoglu

2. "XXVIII.Sie liebte es, auf dem BalkoneDem Nahn des Frührots zuzusehn,Wenn in der blaßren HimmelszoneDie Sterne nach und nach vergehnUnd sacht der Horizont sich lichtet,Ein Wehn vom Morgen schon berichtet,Und dann der Tag allmählich steigt..."
Author: Alexander Pushkin

3. "The Bone Keeper presides over the festival. She rules the lowest level of the Lowerworld where she keeps watch over the bones. They say she has a skull for a face,wears a skirt made of serpents,and her mouth is extra wide in order to feed off the stars during the day.And yet,despite my numerous journeys to the Lowerworld,I have yet to run into her.But maybe you will, nieta,who knows?""A skull faec,a snake skirt,and a steady diet of stars?" I shake my head and balk. "No thanks.I'd prefer to avoid her if it's okay with you.""You don't always get the journey you want, nieta. Though you always get the journey you need," she says-yet another sage statement in a collection of many."You paraphrasing Mick Jagger now?"
Author: Alyson Noel

4. "Ember pulled his face to hers, kissing him again before she said, "Your strength gives me courage." He smiled gently. "No, Ember, that is all your strength and none of mine." She balked, but he kissed her, murmuring against her lips, "And that is why I love you."
Author: Andrea Cremer

5. "His books commingled democratically, united under the all-inclusive flag of Literature. Some were vertical, some horizontal, and some actually placed behind others. Mine were balkanized by nationality and subject matter."
Author: Anne Fadiman

6. "If you write anything meaningful over there, June, keep it far away from this city. They will turn a story about glue-addicted gypsy children in the Balkans into an animated musical about a tribe of pixie-sized fairy-dust-loving flamenco dancers who live happily ever after with their dancing bears."
Author: Annie Ward

7. "Ve ben bir adim atarak korkuluga yaklasacagim, saçlarimi balkondan asagi sarkitacagim, kendimi bosluga birakacagim. Yolda karsima iyi niyetli biri çikacak ve soracak olursa, asagidaki insanlari gösterip, bir süre yere paralel gittikten sonra onlara anlayamayacaklari seyler anlattim diyecegim. Öyle olsun."
Author: Baris Biçakçi

8. "Hayatin gereginden genis ve fazla oldugunu, kulagina hep en yüksek sayilari fisildadigini düsünüyor. Dokuz yüz kirk dört kadin diye fisildiyor mesela, altmis üç bin kitap, yüz bin deniz, bir milyon bira... Balkonda oturmus mutlu mesut çayini içerken, hayat daha böyle bir milya nefis çayin zarif bardaklarda onu bekledigini fisildiyor kulagina, yaninda da mercimekli köfteyle elmali kurabiye var, diyor. Hayatin bu manasiz, bu sinir bozucu zenginligi ve vaatleri karsisinda çildirip delirmemek için hayal kuruyorum, diye düsünüyor Cemil. O bulanik genisligi, o yankisiz boslugu, hayallerimin görsel yankilariyla doldurmaya çalisiyorum. Sahip oldugum seyleri küçümseyen, bana durmadan daha yasanacak çok sey oldugunu söyleyen hayat ile baska türlü nasil bas ederim? Ya böyle kendini hayallerle avutan biri olacagim ya da gördügüm her seye saldiracagim. Insan olmak ne zor sey!"
Author: Baris Biçakçi

9. "Remember all those references to Macedonia as the oasis of peace in the Balkans. You only really appreciate it when you have lost it."
Author: Boris Trajkovski

10. "Çok yaklastin." dedi nefes nefese. "Yeterince yakin degil." Ama bunu söylerken sirittim, hareketi yapmayi basarabildigim için heyecanlanmistim. Bu hareketim kalabaligi da memnun ettis ve takdir eder sekilde islik çaldilar. "Dikkatli olun Hükümdar'im" diye bapirdi birileri. "Kiz güzel yüzünüzü yaralayabilir."Ethaniçten bir sekilde güldü. " Tanri korusun." dedi balkondakilere. "O zaman sadece inanilmaz servetim ve harika içgüdülerim kalir güvenebilecegim."
Author: Chloe Neill

11. "It happened in New York, April 10th, nineteen years ago. Even my hand balks at the date. I had to push to write it down, just to keep the pen moving on the paper. It used to be a perfectly ordinary day, but now it sticks up on the calendar like a rusty nail."
Author: Donna Tartt

12. "Ko li ce goreti u Paklu?Oni što prodaju, oni što kupuju, ili oni što to gledaju a cute? Uh, davo ce raditi u tri smene kadmu naide naša generacija... Još malo pa nestalo...Na Velikom Balkanskom Vašaru trguje se robusno, bez cenjkanja, nacinom koji je još AtilaHun doveo do perfekcije, ali mnogi nisu tu samo iz koristi...O, nikako...Mnogi su tu iz cistog zadovoljstva...Ovo je narod Nebeskih Ratnika, Granicara Hrišcanstva, narod vojnicki toliko superioran, dapar poslednjih ratova vodi sam protiv sebe, u nedostatku dostojnih protivnika...Pa slušaj, pedeset godina apstinencije teško je palo?Zardali oklopi vitezova poraženih na Kosovu Polju žestoko su ulubljeni od silnog busanja ugrudi..."
Author: Ðorde Balaševic

13. "In the Ottoman times, there were itinerant storytellers called "meddah. " They would go to coffee houses, where they would tell a story in front of an audience, often improvising. With each new person in the story, the meddah would change his voice, impersonating that character. Everybody could go and listen, you know ordinary people, even the sultan, Muslims and non-Muslims. Stories cut across all boundaries. Like "The Tales of Nasreddin Hodja," which were very popular throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans and Asia. Today, stories continue to transcend borders"
Author: Elif Shafak

14. "Sir?""Yes""Where do you go at night?"Winter paused and glanced over his shoulder. Joseph was watching him with perceptive eyes for one so young. In that instant, Winter grew tired of lies. "I right wrongs."He expect more questions--Joseph was usually full of them and his answer was too obscure--but the boy merely nodded. "Will you teach me how sometime?"Winter's eyes widened. Teach him to...? His mind instantly balked at the thought of putting Joseph in danger. But were he ever to ask for an apprentice to his Ghost, he knew instinctively that he could find no one with more courage than the lad."
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt

15. "We are not only talking about waves of refugees coming to Greece, to Italy, and elsewhere. Destabilizing the Balkans means Lebanonization, and that means destabilizing all of Europe."
Author: Fatos Nano

16. "The vision of Van Helsing as a vampire is one before which my imagination balks; this is doubtless only a shortcoming on my part; he may have been well fitted for the role, since as we have seen he had already the power, by means of speech, to cast his victims into a stupor."
Author: Fred Saberhagen

17. "May in Varanasi. 25° and wet. It's like the 6th circle of the inferno here, Edith - where they flail the arses off the howling heretics and the men who fuck marine life etc. NATO's stomping on the Balkans while India and Pakistan threaten one another with nukes. "Dead From the Waist Down" on MTV. The humidity's making me horny and mad. I miss Robin. In his new book, Ken Wilbur calls it "skin hunger". I feel like I'm building up a charge. Monsoon's on its way."
Author: Grant Morrison

18. "Silar's problem is something I, as an author, am constantly faced with. I have to predict the actions of my characters as they enter different situations. But there's always that element of chaos when they lose their sanity or when the less-probable occurs, which works against whatever fate I have in store for them. Just to complicate things further, it's almost inexcusable for an author to have characters acting... um... out of character in a book unless it's warranted by some other event. Therefore, as reasonable readers and authors, we all have our own ideas of deterministic behaviour and frequently balk at actions/decisions that seem odd."
Author: H.O. Charles

19. "Kendisi Ingilizce bilmedigi gibi, Türkçe de bilmiyor. Bir kitabinda "imam ikindi namazi saatinde cami balkonuna çikarak ezan okudu" yaziyor. Bir kere namaz saati olmaz, vakti olur. Cami balkonu yoktur, minare serefesi vardir. Ezani da imam degil müezzin okur. Bu örnekle de sabittir ki yasadigi bir toplumun kültüründen haberi olmayan bir yazar, Nobel de alsa dogru eserler ortaya koymaz." - Orhan Pamuk hakkinda"
Author: Ilber Ortayli

20. "Suviše je ovaj narod patio od nereda, nasilja i nepravde, i suviše navikao da ih podnosi sa podmuklim roptanjem ili da se buni protiv njih, vec prema vremenima i okolnostima. Izmedu zlokovarnih, osvetnickih misli i povremenih pobuna prolazi im gorak i pust vek. Za sve drugo oni su neosetljivi i nepristupni. Ponekad se covek pita da nije duh vecine balkanskih naroda zauvek otrovan i da, možda, nikad više nece ni moci ništa drugo do jedno: da trpi nasilje ili da ga cini."
Author: Ivo Andric

21. "Drenched in British purples, I have offered up my tones: pigeon breast, hind belly, balky mule lung, monkey bottom pink, lapis lazuli and malachite, excited nymph thigh, panther pee-pee, high-smelling hen hair, hedgehog in aspic, barrel-maker's brothel, revered rose, monkeybush, turkey-like white, sly violet, page's slipper, immaculate nun spring, unspeakable red, Ensor azure, affected yellow, mummy skull, rock-hard gray, brunt celadon, shop soiled smoke ring."
Author: James Ensor

22. "A month later Billie sits at her dining room table, sifting through the pictorial record of Chris's final days. It is all she can do to force herself to examine the fuzzy snapshots. As she studies the pictures, she breaks down from time to time, weeping as only a mother who has outlived a child can weep, betraying a sense of loss so huge and irreparable that the mind balks at taking its measure. Such bereavement, witnessed at close range, makes even the most eloquent apologia for high-risk activities ring fatuous and hollow." - describing the mother of Chris McCandless after learning of his starvation in the wild"
Author: Jon Krakauer

23. "Compassion is not a popular virtue. Very often when I talk to religious people, and mention how important it is that compassion is the key, that it's the sine-qua-non of religion, people look kind of balked, and stubborn sometimes, as much to say, what's the point of having religion if you can't disapprove of other people?"
Author: Karen Armstrong

24. "A novel in progress doesn't have a clear, forward process. It's messy, like a beloved, balky child."
Author: Kay Kenyon

25. "Well, that is all the notes and there is not much else in the paper of any importance. I never take much interest in foreign parts. Who's this Archduke man who has been murdered?""What does it matter to us?" asked Miss Cornelia, unaware of the hideous answer to her question, which destiny was even then preparing. "Someone is always murdering or being murdered in those Balkan States. It's their normal condition and I don't really think that our papers ought to publish such shocking things."
Author: L.M. Montgomery

26. "I have a strong propensity in me to begin this chapter very nonsensically, and I will not balk my fancy.--Accordingly I set off thus:"
Author: Laurence Sterne

27. "Matt opened the door. "We seriously need to finish the process with her hair.""Two more minutes," Trace said.Matt balked over the delay, but finally said, "Fine. Two minutes and no more." He ducked back inside."Oh, wow," Priss teased. "He really is terrified of you, isn't he?"Trace smiled. "It was noble of you to try to shield him earlier.""Yeah, well." She huffed out a breath and looked down at their clasped hands. "You were mean-mugging him, and I wasn't sure what you might do.""And you figured whatever you did, you could stop me even if another man couldn't?"
Author: Lori Foster

28. "She had told herself she should be reassured by his squeamishness; a man who balked at scars would not give her new ones. Now she suddenly wondered if she'd had it wrong. A man without scars would always underestimate their value. He would not see them as marks of courage."
Author: Meredith Duran

29. "The online musical universe has become Balkanized, with many sites focusing on minute niches. That works well for reaching very specific demographics, which is wonderful for advertising, but it flies in the face of the common wisdom that people's tastes have become more diverse as music of any description has become a mouse-click away."
Author: Michael Azerrad

30. "I've always balked at anything that feels like a clique, even if it's not always in my best interest to do so. I like each individual, fedora-wearing hipster - it's just the greater gestalt that rubs me the wrong way."
Author: Michael Showalter

31. "Svako leto krajem avgusta i pocetkom septembra preko Princevskih ostrva prelecu jata roda koja stižu sa severozapada, sa Balkana, spuštajuci se na jug da tu provedu zimu. I sada sam izlazio u baštu dok su preletala jata roda kao u mom detinjstvu i zadivljen posmatrao odlucno i misteriozno putovanje "hodocasnika", ciji se lepet krila mogao cuti u tišini. Kad sam bio dete, dve nedelje po prolasku jata roda, s tugom bismo se vracali brodom u Istanbul. Dok bih kod kuce citao tri meseca stare vesti u novinama okacenim na prozore i požutelim od letnjeg sunca, osecao bih se opcinjen i razmišljao koliko vreme sporo prolazi."
Author: Orhan Pamuk

32. "One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans (1888)."
Author: Otto Von Bismarck

33. "Very few people are able to organize and direct followers, which is a far more subtle and multifaceted skill. Leadership is really a form of temporary authority that others grant you, and they only follow you if they find you consistently credible. It's all about perception—and if teammates find you the least bit inconsistent, moody, unpredictable, indecisive, or emotionally unreliable, then they balk and the whole team is destabilized."
Author: Pat Summitt

34. "Next, PleaseAlways too eager for the future, wePick up bad habits of expectancy.Something is always approaching; every dayTill then we say,Watching from a bluff the tiny, clearSparkling armada of promises draw near.How slow they are! And how much time they waste,Refusing to make haste!Yet still they leave us holding wretched stalksOf disappointment, for, though nothing balksEach big approach, leaning with brasswork prinked,Each rope distinct,Flagged, and the figurehead with golden titsArching our way, it never anchors; it'sNo sooner present than it turns to past.Right to the lastWe think each one will heave to and unloadAll good into our lives, all we are owedFor waiting so devoutly and so long.But we are wrong:Only one ship is seeking us, a black-Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her backA huge and birdless silence. In her wakeNo waters breed or break."
Author: Philip Larkin

35. "Nilai yang diwariskan oleh kemanusiaan hanya untuk mereka yang mengerti dan membutuhkan. Humaniora memang indah bila diucapkan para mahaguru—indah pula didengar oleh mahasiswa berbakat dan toh menyebalkan bagi mahasiswa-mahasiswa bebal. Berbahagialah kalian, mahasiswa bebal, karena kalian dibenarkan berbuat segala-galanya(Rumah Kaca, h. 39)"
Author: Pramoedya Ananta Toer

36. "Doubt not, O poet, but persist. Say 'It is in me, and shall out.' Stand there, balked and dumb, stuttering and stammering, hissed and hooted, stand and strive, until at last rage draw out of thee that dream-power which every night shows thee is thine own; a power transcending all limit and privacy, and by virtue of which a man is the conductor of the whole river of electricity."
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson

37. "Speech, tennis, music, skiing, manners, love- you try them waking and perhaps balk at the jump, and then you're over. You've caught the rhythm of them once and for all, in your sleep at night. The city, of course, can wreck it. So much insomnia. So many rhythms collide. The salesgirl, the landlord, the guests, the bystanders, sixteen varieties of social circumstance in a day. Everyone has the power to call your whole life into question here. Too many people have access to your state of mind. Some people are indifferent to dislike, even relish it. Hardly anyone I know."
Author: Renata Adler

38. "Speech baffled my machine. Helen made all well-formed sentences. But they were hollow and stuffed--linguistic training bras. She sorted nouns from verbs, but, disembodied, she did not know the difference between thing and process, except as they functioned in clauses. Her predications were all shotgun weddings. Her ideas were as decorative as half-timber beams that bore no building load.She balked at metaphor. I felt the annoyance of her weighted vectors as they readjusted themselves, trying to accommodate my latest caprice. You're hungry enough to eat a horse. A word from a friend ties your stomach in knots. Embarrassment shrinks you, amazement strikes you dead. Wasn't the miracle enough? Why do humans need to say everything in speech's stockhouse except what they mean?"
Author: Richard Powers

39. "The networks found themselves having to compete for an increasingly Balkanized audience."
Author: Roger Mudd

40. "Only one thing had her balking: his cool kiss. Especially when compared to Mr. Pinter's hot ones.Curse that man. No matter how much she told herself his kisses hadn't meant anything, her wounded pride wanted to believe otherwise. Her wounded pride insisted they'd been too passionate to be meant only as a lesson.Her wounded pride was a blasted nuisance."
Author: Sabrina Jeffries

41. "What's the harm in forgetting? What does remembering do? Kugel had read that the war in the Balkans was referred to as the War of the Grandmothers; that after 50 years of peace, it was the grandmothers who reminded their offspring to hate each other, the grandmothers who reminded them of past atrocities, of indignities long gone. Never forget! shouted the grandmothers. So their grandchildren remembered, and their grandchildren died."
Author: Shalom Auslander

42. "These hands," he squeezed them both on my face to make his point, "will never touch you without being gentle. Unless that's not what you want, of course." His eyebrow lifted waiting for me to balk, but I just waited. "These arms will never hold you back, but I'll hold you as tight as you'll let me. I can't wait for you to be all mine. You belong to me in every way, Maggie. Mine." I nodded in his hands. He leaned closer and whispered, "Say it."I didn't wait a beat. "I belong to you." And he belonged to me.He grinned. "You're daggum right you do."
Author: Shelly Crane

43. "Jura monotoniškai plakesi i pakrantes juosta, patamsyje galejai ižiureti balkšva linija — tai putos, iš kuriu šiais laikais niekas nebeišnyra, nebent nugaišes banginis arba milžiniška naftos deme, ištekejusi iš girto tanklaivio."
Author: Sigitas Parulskis

44. "Secam se da sam jedno jutro video ispred samoposluge nekog popa kako ljušti kikiriki, odmah mi je bilo jasno da nece biti mira na Balkanu."
Author: Slobodan Tišma

45. "...mencintai itu, kadang mengumpulkan segala tabiat menyebalkan dari seseorang yang engkau cintai, memakinya, merasa tak sanggup lagi menjadi yang terbaik untuk dirinya, dan berpikir tak ada lagi jalan kembali, tapi tetap saja engkau tak sanggup benar-benar meninggalkannya."
Author: Tasaro G.K.

46. "I balked. Another vampire? I guess it made sense; the states of the Pacific Northwest were known for their lenient monster laws."
Author: The Harvard Lampoon

47. "The entire Jesus concept, that human sacrifice should be the substratum of a moral religion of love, strikes me as incongruous. God condemned us and Jesus saved us, and they are actually the same being? Christianity is the idea that you are so abhorrent that God had to kill himself. He had to embody the human form and send himself on a bizarre suicide mission just to revoke the disgustingness of the humans he created. I balk at suggestions that these ideas dictate to the concepts of morality and love."
Author: Trevor Treharne

48. "One reads the truer deeper facts of Reconstruction with a great despair. It is at once so simple and human, and yet so futile. There is no villain, no idiot, no saint. There are just men; men who crave ease and power, men who know want and hunger, men who have crawled. They all dream and strive with ecstasy of fear and strain of effort, balked of hope and hate. Yet the rich world is wide enough for all, wants all, needs all. So slight a gesture, a word, might set the strife in order, not with full content, but with growing dawn of fulfillment. Instead roars the crash of hell..."
Author: W.E.B. Du Bois

49. "If this war is not fought with the greatest brutality against the bands both in the East and in the Balkans then in the foreseeable future the strength at our disposal will not be sufficient to be able to master this plague."
Author: Wilhelm Keitel

50. "Kitaplardan baska nefes alacagim balkon kalmadi gerçeklikler sehrinde."
Author: Yekta Kopan

Balk Quotes Pictures