Your targets can only be realized on the basis of dreams.

When Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared, “Your targets can only be realized on the basis of dreams,” he spoke not merely as a politician or statesman, but as one who understood the timeless bond between vision and achievement, between imagination and action. His words reach beyond the realm of politics—they speak to every soul that has ever sought to bring the unseen into being. In this truth lies a sacred principle of creation itself: before a man builds, he must first dream. The world around us—the cities, the empires, the sciences, the very structures of civilization—were once only shadows in the minds of dreamers who refused to let their visions fade.

This quote finds its roots in Erdoğan’s own journey, rising from modest beginnings to the highest office in Turkey. He came from a world where ambition often clashed with hardship, where obstacles could easily smother hope. Yet he learned that the great builder must first be a dreamer, for dreams are the soil in which goals take root. Without them, plans are hollow, and ambition is blind. His words call upon people not to fear dreaming, but to dream with purpose—to let imagination serve as the foundation upon which targets, plans, and progress are built. Dreams give birth to direction, and direction gives birth to destiny.

The ancients, too, knew this truth. The philosopher Aristotle taught that “thought is the beginning of action,” and the poet Homer wrote of heroes who carried visions of glory before the deeds were ever done. Even the architects of the pyramids or the builders of Rome did not begin with stone and chisel; they began with imagination, the unseen architecture of the mind. To dream is to look into the infinite and choose what might yet become real. Without that sacred act, no great civilization could have risen, and no individual could have found greatness within themselves.

Consider the life of Leonardo da Vinci, who in his time drew sketches of flying machines centuries before flight was possible. To many, his designs seemed fanciful, but Leonardo understood that all invention begins as a dream too large for its age. His dreams were seeds, planted in the soil of the future. And though he did not live to see them realized, his vision paved the way for generations of minds to follow. So too does Erdoğan’s statement remind us: every target worth pursuing is born from a dream that dares to reach beyond the present moment.

But dreaming alone is not enough. Erdoğan’s use of the phrase “on the basis of dreams” carries wisdom: dreams are the foundation, not the completion. They are the beginning of responsibility, the call to labor and to struggle. For every dream must pass through the crucible of discipline, patience, and persistence before it can stand in the world of men. The weak dream only for comfort; the strong dream for creation—and then rise to make that dream real. The ancients said, “Vision without action is a mirage,” and so the wise learn to unite the heaven of imagination with the earth of effort.

This truth applies to every soul, not just the ruler or the builder. Each person is the craftsman of their own destiny. To live without dreams is to wander in darkness; to dream without work is to chase the wind. But to dream and act together—that is the essence of human greatness. A teacher who dreams of changing minds, a doctor who dreams of healing nations, a child who dreams of a better tomorrow—all stand within the same divine lineage of dreamers who shape the world through their faith and courage.

So let this teaching be passed down like a torch: never fear to dream, for your dreams are not idle—they are the blueprints of your future. But once you have dreamed, awaken to your duty. Build the vision with your hands, step by step, until thought becomes reality. For as Erdoğan reminds us, your targets can only be realized on the basis of dreams—and it is through this sacred balance of imagination and labor that mankind fulfills its destiny, generation after generation.