Thoughts and sayings of Ilyas Yesenberlin

In this article given the deep thoughts of the writer about life and love, history and work, which continue to be outstanding. 

About love and happiness

• I think that there is no bigger treasure in the world than love.
• In the world there are few people who can carry their love throughout all life. They grow old, become weak, but their hearts, which suffered of heart attacks, are still full of love. These people remind me keepers of invaluable treasure, as I believe that love are the biggest treasure.
• Character of the nation is defined by the woman — mother. They are indeed the indicators of national character. Perhaps, in all East there are no other freedom-loving and free women, than Kazakh women. She never hided her face behind a veil. She could fight for her love and was not afraid to speak up her opinion, and if it was necessary to go to the battlefield. In Kazakh legends there are many names of brave and wise women.
• Happiness is the purpose of life, but sometimes it stretches further than the life itself. Sometimes life and happiness is incompatible, and some people refuse to live. One way to win against death — it is prolonged happiness after death. Happiness is dynamic concept not static. It does not stop on reached, but requires further victories and progress. To preserve happiness it is necessary to conquer new heights all time.

About life and man

• My poor people you are so wise! Nobody call life "frail" except you, i.e. mirage and deception. Indeed, life is deceptive and quick… passed as a moment…
• Individual lives which passed through centuries were grains of sand, but light that shone over the world or flared in the lamp illuminated a way to our generations. Creative will and genius of steppe men did not vanish by sever tests. Moreover, art was one of the forms of fight for them. Kazakh people managed to save and develop further the ancient civilization created by nomads of Asian steppes. Our ancestors never forgot the past, and also did not turn away of the present, accurately understanding the place in a pattern… "Fire in the lamp burned always".
• Kazakhs say: "What baby bird sees in the slot, that what it will do when it flies away". Example and upbringing given in a family is worthless. Children who saw a good example will grow with healthy soul and body, a bad example will give appropriate results. Character, habits and worldviews of elders can influence on their children. And as children grow up, they express their opinions and judge the acts of their parents.
• When time to die comes a man cannot change anything or return. Death is callous and comes unexpectedly. If death had a soul, it would be ashamed of those damnations which are sent by mankind. Although, despite how long will live a man there will be his unfulfilled dreams. Thus, life of each person will be estimated at memories of God and people by his deeds.

About history and work

• Why now I mostly interested by history? Maybe because modern life is interesting for me? No, it is not! I love today’s life. All of these are the life of my descendants. Now I look back because my knowledge becomes more informative and my outlook is wider. When I did not know life, did not think of history, but now… As a tree rise higher, the more deeply its roots go to the earth. It is the same as for person. The more he thinks of the future, the more wants to know about the past, otherwise he cannot build the future. The description of difficult and heroic history of my people became sense of my work. The essence of the problem is that the Kazakh lands quite often were attacked from the outside. Our people are quite often and more than others experienced oppressions, humiliations and sufferings. They went through many bloody wars. One Arab historian of the15th century wrote the following words of one khan: "from now on you can consider that the Kazakh people are no more exist".
• There were many times when the nation was on the verge of physical destruction. And this, the destroyed people, having reserved the huge territory between West and East nevertheless survived. To tell about the past of my people became a main goal of my life. To show real history about fight for a survival and saving the state and ethnic community. Both in "Nomads" and in the trilogy "Golden Horde" I wanted to tell about it. My aim was to draw right conclusions from lessons of history.
• People’s memory is short and their gratitude weights a little on scale of history. Success, money, career and glory outweigh it quickly. Although, there are, certainly, other scales, the correct ones, but there is one thing that we will be judged not be contemporaries, but descendants whom now we cannot even imagine!
• The main thing in any work is inspiration. It is hard to create something without it. Without inspiration, the shovel falls from the builder’s hands, and the smith throws his hammer, extinguishes a horn and leaves up hill and down dale to avoid the work. Work without inspiration becomes an excessive burden, intolerable difficulty! It is unfair that people allocated with inspiration only creative professions: artist, actor, poet and limited agronomist and engineer! Any work requires inspiration and creative impulse!