Top 100 Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes
#2. But how can anyone put a bridle on man's vanity and arrogance? But how can Purity walk the earth without covering her feet with mud?
Nikos Kazantzakis
#3. The masses do not see the Sirens. They do not hear songs in the air. Blind, deaf, stooping, they pull at their oars in the hold of the earth. But the more select, the captains, harken to a Siren within them ... and royally squander their lives with her.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#4. This rebel would but toss his head, and men,slaves,horses, towers ... all the accursed levels above him ... would come tumbling down. God always works in this way. Deep in the foundations of wrong he buries the small despised cry of justice.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#5. There is no harsher means of punishment, than to answer malice with kindness.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#6. I collect my tools: sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing, intellect. Night has fallen ...
Nikos Kazantzakis
#7. The only thing I know is this: I am full of wounds and still standing on my feet.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#8. We're going to start with small, easy things; then, little by little we shall try our hand at the big things. And after that, after we finish the big things, we shall undertake the impossible.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#9. Leave your books alone. Aren't you ashamed? Man is a wild beast, and wild beasts don't read.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#10. When everything goes wrong, what a joy to test your soul and see if it has endurance and courage! An invisible and all-powerful enemy - some call him God, others the Devil, seem to rush upon us to destroy us; but we are not destroyed.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#11. Be sure to live up to your reputation for honesty and goodness, because many souls who believe you to be honest and good have placed themselves in your hands.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#12. Madness, Brother Masseo, is the salt which prevents good sense from rotting.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#13. I should learn to run, to wrestle, to swim, to ride horses, to row, to drive a car, to fire a rifle. I should fill my soul with flesh. I should fill my flesh with soul. In fact, I should reconcile at last within me the two internal antagonists.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#14. I fight to embrace the entire circle of human activity to the full extent of my ability.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#15. All my life, I struggled to stretch my mind to the breaking point, until it began to creak, in order to create a great thought which might be able to give a new meaning to life, a new meaning to death, and to console mankind.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#16. O Sun, great Oriental, my proud mind's golden cap, I love to wear you cocked askew, to play and burst in song throughout our lives, and so rejoice our hearts.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#17. You gave me your curse, holy Fathers. I give you a blessing: May you be as moral and religious as I am.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#18. Man is able, and has the duty, to reach the furthest point on the road he has chosen. Only by means of hope can we attain what is beyond hope.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#19. The sole way to save oneself is to save others. Or to struggle to save others -even that is sufficient.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#20. A woman's body is a dark and monstrous mystery; between her supple thighs a heavy whirlpool swirls, two rivers crash, and woe to him who slips and falls!
Nikos Kazantzakis
#21. Two equally steep and bold paths may lead to the same peak. To act as if death did not exist, or to act thinking every minute of death, is perhaps the same thing.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#23. How ought we to love God, Father?" he asked in a whisper.
"By loving men, my son"
"And how ought we to love men?"
"By trying to guide them along the right path"
"And what is the right path?"
"The one that rises"
- Nikos Kazanzakis, Christ Recrucified
Nikos Kazantzakis
#24. Keep your distance, boss! Don't make men too bold, don't go telling them we're equal, we've got the same rights, or they'll go straight and trample on your rights; they'll steal your bread and leave you to die of hunger. Keep your distance, boss, by all the good things I wish you!
Nikos Kazantzakis
#25. Confucius says: 'Many seek happiness higher than man; others beneath him. But happiness is the
same height as man.' That is true. So there must be a happiness to suit every man's stature.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#26. All the political, social, and economic improvements, all the technical progress cannot have any regenerating significance, so long as our inner life remains as it is at present.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#27. Happiness is a simple everyday miracle, like water, and we are not aware of it.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#28. God, what is all this talk put out by the popes? Paradise is here, my good man. God, give me no other paradise!
Nikos Kazantzakis
#30. It is impossible for me to remember how many days or weeks went by in this way. Time is round, and it rolls quickly.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#31. Never in my life have I feared death as much as I feared that resurrection.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#32. There is only one woman in the world. One woman, with many faces.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#33. My principal anguish, and the wellspring of all my joys and sorrows, has been the incessant merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#34. Behind each woman rises the austere, sacred and mysterious face of Aphrodite.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#35. To do the will of God means to do my own most deeply hidden will. Within even the most unworthy of men there is a servant of God, asleep.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#36. If you have faith, a splinter from an old door will become a holy relic. And if you have no faith the entire holy cross will become an old door.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#37. We have seen the highest circle of spiraling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name we wished: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Ultimate Despair, Silence.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#38. Yes, there is weeping, even in heaven, but it is for those who are still crawling on the earth.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#39. The more devils we have within us, the more chance we have to form angels.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#40. There are three kinds of souls, three kinds of prayers. One: I am a bow in your hands, Lord. Draw me lest I rot. Two: Do not overdraw me, Lord. I shall break. Three: Overdraw me, and who cares if I break! Choose!
Nikos Kazantzakis
#41. To think things out properly and fairly, a fellow's got to be calm and old and toothless: When you're an old gaffer with no teeth, it's easy to say: 'Damn it, boys, you mustn't bite!' But, when you've got all thirty-two teeth ...
Nikos Kazantzakis
#42. Beauty is merciless. You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#43. You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#44. The longer I live, the more I rebel. I'm not going to give in; I want to conquer the world!
Nikos Kazantzakis
#45. The human soul is heavy, clumsy, held in the mud of the flesh. Its perceptions are still coarse and brutish. It can divine nothing clearly, nothing with certainty.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#46. I said only one word, brought only one message: Love. Love - nothing else.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#48. Cursed be all those on land and sea who eat their fill, cursed be all those who starve yet raise no hand in protest, cursed be all the bread, the wine, the meat which day by day descends deep in the entrails of the exploited man and turns not into freedom's cry, the murderer's ruthless knife!
Nikos Kazantzakis
#49. The canary is like a man's soul. It sees bars around it, but instead of despairing, it sings.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#51. There, in the desert, there's hunger, thirst, prostrations - and God. Here there's food, wine, women - and God. Everywhere God. So, why go look for him in the desert?
Nikos Kazantzakis
#52. Till now, I told myself, You have only seen the shadow and been well content with it; now, I am going to lead you into the substance.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#53. We have but a single moment at our disposal. Let us transform that moment into eternity. No other form of immortality exists
Nikos Kazantzakis
#54. Once more I realized to what an extent earthly happiness is made to the measure of man. It is not a rare bird which we must pursue at one moment in heaven, at the next in our minds. Happiness is a domestic bird found in our own courtyards.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#55. I know now: I do not hope for anything. I do not fear anything, I have freed myself from both the mind and the heart, I have mounted much higher, I am free .
Nikos Kazantzakis
#56. What a miracle life is and how alike are all souls when they send their roots down deep and meet and are one!
Nikos Kazantzakis
#57. Oh, yes. Wife. Children. Home. Everything. The full catastrophe.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#58. I am a weak, ephemeral creature made of mud and dream. But I feel all the powers of the universe whirling within me.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#59. At night the jackals came and ate their feet, and the next morning crows flew down and ate their eyes.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#60. You know all about love, but that is not enough. You must also learn that hate comes from God as well, that it too is in the Lord's service. And in times like these, with the world fallen to the state it has, hate serves God more than love.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#62. If a woman sleeps alone it puts a shame on all men. God has a very big heart, but there is one sin He will not forgive. If a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#63. Every village has its simpleton, and if one does not exist they invent one to pass the time.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#64. Time is not a field, to be measured in rods, nor a sea, to be measured in miles; it is a heart beat.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#66. A prophet is the one who, when everyone else despairs, hopes. And when everyone else hopes, he despairs. You'll ask me why. It's because he has mastered the Great Secret: that the Wheel turns.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#68. I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#71. I'm fighting to save myself, and save myself, I will. Mary Magdalene in The Last Temptation of Christ
Nikos Kazantzakis
#73. For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#74. I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#75. True teachers use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#76. The landscape affects the human psyche - the soul, the body and the innermost contemplations - like music. Every time you feel nature deeper you resonate better with her, finding new elements of balance and freedom ...
Nikos Kazantzakis
#77. Truly, everything in this world depended on time. Time ripened all. If you had time, you succeeded in working the human mud internally and turning it into spirit. Then you did not fear death. If you did not have time, you perished.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#79. Monarch of earth, I shall confess my secret craft: I've always fought to purify wild flame to light, and kindle whatever light I found to burst in flame.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#80. I felt deep within me that the highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe! - The Narrator.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#81. Poverty and nakedness are nothing, provided you have a good wife
Nikos Kazantzakis
#82. Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#83. A crust of lard, habit, and cowardice envelops the soul; no matter what it craves from the depths of its prison, the lard, habit, and cowardice carry out something entirely different.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#84. How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea ... All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#85. Nothing is nearer to us than heaven. The earth is beneath our feet, and we tread upon it, but heaven is within us.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#86. To cleave that sea [the Aegean] in the gentle autumnal season, murmuring the name of each islet, is to my mind the joy most apt to transport the heart of man into paradise.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#88. Every obstacle in his journey became a milestone, an occasion for further triumph. We have a model in front of us now, a model who blazes our trail and gives us strength.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#89. God turned his face the other way, and the earth was in darkness. An eclipse of God ... an eclipse of God
Nikos Kazantzakis
#90. When I encounter a sunrise, a painting, a woman, or an idea that makes my heart bound like a young calf, then I know I am standing in front of happiness.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#91. I am not going to kill sin by killing the sinners; I am not going to wage war against evildoers and infidels. I shall preach love, and I shall love; I shall preach concord, and shall practice brotherly love toward everyone in the world.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#92. A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#94. True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their
own.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#95. Three kinds of souls, three prayers: 1) I am a bow in your hands, Lord. Draw me, lest I rot. 2) Do not overdraw me, Lord. I shall break. 3) Overdraw me, Lord, and who cares if I break.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#96. The truth is that we all are one, that all of us together create god, that god is not man's ancestor, but his descendant.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#97. As long as our souls remain strong, that is all that matters; as long as they don't decline. Because with the fall of certain souls in this world, the world itself will collapse. These are the pillars which support it. They are few, but enough.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#98. All those who actually live the mysteries of life haven't the time to write, and all those who have the time don't live them! D'you see?
Nikos Kazantzakis
#99. ... Man's heart is a ditch full of blood. The loved ones who have died throw themselves down on the bank of this ditch to drink the blood and so come to life again; the dearer they are to you, the more of your blood they drink. - The Narrator.
Nikos Kazantzakis
#100. I've stopped thinking all the time of what happened yesterday. And stopped asking what's going to happen tomorrow. What's happening today, this minute, is what I care about.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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