Best Of Elif Shafak's Three Daughters of Eve

Here is a selection of memorable quotes from Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak 



She refrained from talking about these issues with the pious, because once they noticed her vacillating between doubt and faith, they insisted on trying to win her over. The few atheists she had met were not so different. Whether in the name of God or science, there was no satisfaction for the ego quite like the satisfaction of converting someone to your side.

p.85


She wrote in her God-diary: I’m perpetually in limbo. Maybe I want too many things at once and nothing passionately enough.

p.86


In the name of religion they are killing God. For the sake of discipline and authority, they forget love.

p.87


Why roots were rated so highly compared with branches or leaves, Peri had never understood. Trees had multiple shoots and filaments extending in every direction, under and above the ancient soils of the earth. If even roots refused to stay put, why expect the impossible from human beings?

p.111


“But Iran is a society of memory and tradition. We Turks are good at amnesia.”

“Which do you think is preferable?” asked Darren beside her. “Remembering or forgetting?”

“They both have their drawbacks,” Peri replied without hesitation. “But I’d rather forget. The past is a burden. What’s the use of remembering when we can’t change anything?”

“Only the young have the luxury to forget,” said the elderly professor.

p.287


There are two kinds of cities in the world: those that reassure their residents that tomorrow and the day after, and the day after that, will be much the same; and those that do the opposite, insidiously reminding their inhabitants of life’s uncertainty. Istanbul is of the second kind. There is no room for introspection, no time to wait for the clocks to catch up with the pace of events. Istanbulites dart from one breaking news story to the next, moving fast, consuming faster, util something else happens that demands their full attention. 

p.303


He said, “When I let you, Peri, I thought, this girl doesn’t know it but she carries the three passions of Betrand Russell: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and the unbearable compassion for the suffering of mankind.”

p.364

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