Words of edification

Anyone who plans on teaching and reforming the Kazakh must possess two advantages.

First of all, he must wield great power and immense influence that would enable him to inspire fear in adults and take away their sons to send them to school, where they would be guided along different paths of knowledge, with the parents shouldering the expenses. It would suffice if girls were taught Islam so as to make at least strong in their religion. In that case, when parents, grow­ing feeble with age, abandoned their regular pursuits, the younger generation would embark on the right path. &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »

One of the causes of people’s inclination to vice is indo­lence. If the Kazakh had worked the land or engaged in com­merce, would he have lived an idle life? But instead he rides from aul to aul on a horse he has begged from someone else, he sponges off other people, spreads gossip and rumours, by guile and duplicity he leads people astray or is himself un­der the thumb of other scoundrels; he drifts about and does nothing. Anyone who wants to live well and is accustomed to working will consider such life humiliating. Will this person abandon his business and live like a vagabond without any aim or purpose? &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »

Man is endowed by nature with a body and a soul. One should know which of their properties are innate and which are acquired by toil. The need for food, drink and sleep is natural, instinctive. The desire to see and learn something comes from a natural instinct, too, but intelligence and learning are gained through work. By hearing with his ears, beholding with his eyes, touching things with his hands, tasting with his tongue and inhaling through his nose, man gets an idea of the surrounding world. &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »

He is the most miserable among men who has no aspiration. Yet there are aspirations of different kinds. Those who aspire to something are not all alike in their abilities and strength of will. Talented or not, all of them like to hear praise and are eager for praise, whether merited or not. &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »

The proof of the existence of one God, unique and om­nipotent, is that for thousands of years people of different tongues have spoken of God, and, however many religions there might be, all consider that love and justice are the attributes of God. &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »