Nikos Kazantzakis Quotations | Page 2

Everything in the world has a hidden meaning. . . . Men, animals, trees, stars, they are all hieroglyphics. When you see them you do not understand them. You think they are really men, animals, trees, stars. It is only years later that you understand.

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.

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. The more the intelligence unveils and violates the secrets of Nature, the more the danger increases and the heart shrinks.

What first truly stirred my soul was not fear or pain, nor was it pleasure or games; it was the yearning for freedom. I had to gain freedom-but from what, from whom? Little by little, in the course of time, I mounted freedom's rough unaccommodating ascent. To gain freedom first of all from the Turk, that was the initial step; after that, later, this new struggle began: to gain freedom from the inner Turk-from ignorance, malice and envy, from fear and laziness, from dazzling false ideas; and finally from idols, all of them, even the most revered and beloved.

The doors of heaven and hell are adjacent and identical.

I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed.

My principle anguish and the source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh.

By believing passionately in that which doesn't exist, you create it and that which has not been sufficiently desired is what we call the non existent.

All my life one of my greatest desires has been to travel-to see and touch unknown countries, to swim in unknown seas, to circle the globe, observing new lands, seas, people, and ideas with insatiable appetite, to see everything for the first time and for the last time, casting a slow, prolonged glance, then to close my eyes and feel the riches deposit themselves inside me calmly or stormily according to their pleasure, until time passes them at last through its fine sieve, straining the quintessence out of all the joys and sorrows.

It was certainly not this mummified and outrageously painted old woman he was seeing before him, but the entire "female species," as it was his custom to call women. The individual disappeared, the features were obliterated, whether young or senile, beautiful or ugly - those were mere unimportant variations. Behind each woman rises the austere, sacred and mysterious face of Aphrodite.

God sends rain, but He also sends hoods; and when the rain grows heavier, He sends a cave.

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.

There is only one sin god will not forgive Boss, and that is to deny a woman who is in wanting ~ Zorba

Ah, if you could dance all that you've just said, then I'd understand.

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.

Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.

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.

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.

Let your youth have free reign, it won't come again, so be bold and no repenting.

Free yourself from one passion to be dominated by another and nobler one. But is not that, too, a form of slavery? To sacrifice oneself to an idea, to a race, to God? Or does it mean that the higher the model the longer the longer the tether of our slavery?

Only after I've seen the visible can I imagine what the invisible is.

I possess no weapon but love. With that I have come to do battle. Help me!

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.

The sole way to save oneself is to save others. Or to struggle to save others -even that is sufficient.

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!

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.

Reach what you cannot

Each man must have his own special route to lead him to God.

The more devils we have within us, the more chance we have to form angels.

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.

I felt this was my duty ... to draw the thick ancestral darkness out of my loins and transform it ... into light.

The canary is like a man's soul. It sees bars around it, but instead of despairing, it sings.

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.

God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises.

There is no harsher means of punishment, than to answer malice with kindness.

Beauty always had a purpose: to be of service to life.

Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean sea.

It doesn't matter whether or not you have a head, you must wear the right sort of hat

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?

As I watched the seagulls, I thought, That's the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust.

This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition. To live far from men, not to need them and yet to love them. To have the stars above, the land to your left and the sea to your right and to realize of a sudden that in your heart, life has accomplished its final miracle: it has become a fairy tale.

Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality," says one of my favorite Byzantine mystics. I did this when a child; I do it now as well in the most creative moments of my life.

What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams.

You can knock on a deaf man's door forever.

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.

When everyone drowns and I'm the only one to escape, God is protecting me. When everyone else is saved and I'm the only one to drown, God is protecting me then too.

What is truth? What is falsehood? Whatever gives wings to men, whatever produces great works and great souls and lifts up a man's height above the earth - that's true. Whatever clips off man's wings - that's false.

As you walk, you cut open and create that riverbed into which the stream of your descendants shall enter and flow.

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.

As long as there are flowers and children and birds in the world, have no fears: everything will be fine.

The heart unites whatever the mind separates, pushes on beyond the arena of necessity and transmutes the struggle into love.

Whoever climbed the Lord's mountain had to possess clean hands and an innocent heart; otherwise the Summit would kill him. Today the doorway is deserted. Soiled hands and sinful hearts are able to pass by without fear, for the Summit kills no longer.

God changes appearances every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises. One moment he is a glass of fresh water, the next, your son bouncing on your knees or an enchanting woman, or perhaps merely a morning walk.

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.

The only way to save yourself is to endeavor to save others.

I am a weak, ephemeral creature made of mud and dream. But I feel all the powers of the universe whirling within me.

Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.

Go as far as you can. Go further than you can!

No! No! Never acknowledge the limitations of man. Smash all boundaries! Deny whatever your eyes see. Die every moment, but say: Death does not exist.'

I collect my tools: sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing, intellect. Night has fallen...

I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been.

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.

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...

My soul comes from better worlds and I have an incurable homesickness of the stars.

The only thing I know is this: I am full of wounds and still standing on my feet.

You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go.

What is love? It is not simply compassion, not simply kindness. In compassion there are two: the one who suffers and the one who feels compassion. In kindness there are two: the one who gives and the one who receives. But in love there is only one; the two join, unite, become inseparable. The I and the you vanish. To love means to lose oneself in the beloved.

By believing passionately in something that does not yet exist, we create it.

all these days acted with responsibility and seriousness over the matter.