quotes by Nikos Kazantzakis
(showing 1-35 of 35)
"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."
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
"God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises."
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
"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 (Zorba the Greek)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
"Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble."
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
"A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free."
— Nikos Kazantzakis
— Nikos Kazantzakis
"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."
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Report to Greco)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Report to Greco)
"I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed."
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Report to Greco)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Report to Greco)
"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!"
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
"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
— Nikos Kazantzakis
""You will, Judas, my brother. God will give you the strength, as much as you lack, because it is necessary—it is necessary for me to be killed and for you to betray me. We two must save the world. Help me."
Judas bowed his head. After a moment he asked, "If you had to betray your master, would you do it?"
Jesus reflected for a long time. Finally he said, "No, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to. That is why God pitied me and gave me the easier task: to be crucified.""
— Nikos Kazantzakis (The Last Temptation of Christ)
Judas bowed his head. After a moment he asked, "If you had to betray your master, would you do it?"
Jesus reflected for a long time. Finally he said, "No, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to. That is why God pitied me and gave me the easier task: to be crucified.""
— Nikos Kazantzakis (The Last Temptation of Christ)
tags:
religion
5 people liked it
"Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean sea."
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
tags:
greece
5 people liked it
"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 (Report to Greco)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Report to Greco)
"Throughout my life my greatest benefactors have been my travels and my dreams. Very few men, living or dead, have helped me in my struggles."
— Nikos Kazantzakis
— Nikos Kazantzakis
"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 (Zorba the Greek)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
"You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go.
"
— Nikos Kazantzakis
"
— Nikos Kazantzakis
"A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free."
— Nikos Kazantzakis
— Nikos Kazantzakis
"Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one."
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
"We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life."
— Nikos Kazantzakis
— Nikos Kazantzakis
"When shall I at last retire into solitude alone, without companions, without joy and without sorrow, with only the sacred certainty that all is a dream? When, in my rags—without desires—shall I retire contented into the mountains? When, seeing that my body is merely sickness and crime, age and death, shall I—free, fearless, and blissful—retire to the forest? When? When, oh when?"
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
"نحن الملامون إن لم يأخذ الواقع الشكل الذي نرغب فيه. كل ما لم نرغب فيه بالقوة الكافية هو الذي نسميه غير موجود. إرغب فيه، و ضمخه بدمك و عرقك و دموعك و سيتجسد. الواقع ليس أكثر من وهم خاضع لرغبتنا و معاناتنا"
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Report to Greco)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Report to Greco)
""Freedom was my first great desire. The second, which remains hidden within me to this day, tormenting me, was the desire for sanctity. Hero together with saint: such is mankind's supreme model.""
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Report to Greco)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Report to Greco)
"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 (The Last Temptation of Christ)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (The Last Temptation of Christ)
"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."
— Nikos Kazantzakis (The Last Temptation of Christ)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (The Last Temptation of Christ)
"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?"
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
"Once more there sounded within me the terrible warning that there is only one life for all men, that there is only one life for all men, that there is no other and that all that can be enjoyed must be enjoyed here. In eternity no other chance will be given to us."
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek)
"آری هدف زمین زندگی نیست، انسان نیست. زمین بدون اینها نیز بوده است و بدون اینها نیز خواهد بود. انسان و زندگی جرقه هایی هستند که از چرخش تند رمین به بیرون پرتاب شده اند.
بیایید متحد شویم، بیایید دست یکدیگر را محکم بگیریم، بیایید دلهامان را یکی کنیم ، بیایید بیافرینیم – تا زمانی که گرمای این زمین هنوز احساس می شود ، تا زمانی که هنوز زلزله ای ، فاجعه ای ، یخچال غول پیکری یا ستاره ددنباله داری نابودماننکرده است – بیایید برای زمین مغزی و قلبی بیافرینیم ، بیایید به این تکاپوی فوق بشری معنایی انسانی ببخشیم.
Yes, the purpose of earth is not life, it is not man, earth has existed without these, and it will live on without them. They are but the ephemeral sparks of its violent whirling.
Let us unite, let us hold each other tightly, let us merge our hearts, let us create –so long as the warmth of this earth endures, so long as no earthquakes, cataclysms, icebergs or comets come to destroy us – let us create for earth a brain and a heart, let us give a human meaning to the superhuman struggle.
"
— Nikos Kazantzakis
بیایید متحد شویم، بیایید دست یکدیگر را محکم بگیریم، بیایید دلهامان را یکی کنیم ، بیایید بیافرینیم – تا زمانی که گرمای این زمین هنوز احساس می شود ، تا زمانی که هنوز زلزله ای ، فاجعه ای ، یخچال غول پیکری یا ستاره ددنباله داری نابودماننکرده است – بیایید برای زمین مغزی و قلبی بیافرینیم ، بیایید به این تکاپوی فوق بشری معنایی انسانی ببخشیم.
Yes, the purpose of earth is not life, it is not man, earth has existed without these, and it will live on without them. They are but the ephemeral sparks of its violent whirling.
Let us unite, let us hold each other tightly, let us merge our hearts, let us create –so long as the warmth of this earth endures, so long as no earthquakes, cataclysms, icebergs or comets come to destroy us – let us create for earth a brain and a heart, let us give a human meaning to the superhuman struggle.
"
— Nikos Kazantzakis
"Life is trouble; only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and look for trouble.
"
— Nikos Kazantzakis
"
— Nikos Kazantzakis
"When an almond tree became covered with blossoms in the heart of winter, all the trees around it began to jeer. 'What vanity,' they screamed, 'what insolence! Just think, it believes it can bring spring in this way!' The flowers of the almond tree blushed for shame. 'Forgive me, my sisters,' said the tree. 'I swear I did not want to blossom, but suddenly I felt a warm springtime breeze in my heart.'"
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Saint Francis)
— Nikos Kazantzakis (Saint Francis)
"The people cast themselves down by the fuming boards
while servants cut the roast, mixed jars of wine and water,
and all the gods flew past like the night-breaths of spring.
The chattering female flocks sat down by farther tables,
their fresh prismatic garments gleaming in the moon
as though a crowd of haughty peacocks played in moonlight.
The queen’s throne softly spread with white furs of fox
gaped desolate and bare, for Penelope felt ashamed
to come before her guests after so much murder.
Though all the guests were ravenous, they still refrained,
turning their eyes upon their silent watchful lord
till he should spill wine in libation for the Immortals.
The king then filled a brimming cup, stood up and raised
it high till in the moon the embossed adornments gleamed:
Athena, dwarfed and slender, wrought in purest gold,
pursued around the cup with double-pointed spear
dark lowering herds of angry gods and hairy demons;
she smiled and the sad tenderness of her lean face,
and her embittered fearless glance, seemed almost human.
Star-eyed Odysseus raised Athena’s goblet high
and greeted all, but spoke in a beclouded mood:
“In all my wandering voyages and torturous strife,
the earth, the seas, the winds fought me with frenzied rage;
I was in danger often, both through joy and grief,
of losing priceless goodness, man’s most worthy face.
I raised my arms to the high heavens and cried for help,
but on my head gods hurled their lightning bolts, and laughed.
I then clasped Mother Earth, but she changed many shapes,
and whether as earthquake, beast, or woman, rushed to eat me;
then like a child I gave my hopes to the sea in trust,
piled on my ship my stubbornness, my cares, my virtues,
the poor remaining plunder of god-fighting man,
and then set sail; but suddenly a wild storm burst,
and when I raised my eyes, the sea was strewn with wreckage.
As I swam on, alone between sea and sky,
with but my crooked heart for dog and company,
I heard my mind, upon the crumpling battlements
about my head, yelling with flailing crimson spear.
Earth, sea, and sky rushed backward; I remained alone
with a horned bow slung down my shoulder, shorn of gods
and hopes, a free man standing in the wilderness.
Old comrades, O young men, my island’s newest sprouts,
I drink not to the gods but to man’s dauntless mind.”
All shuddered, for the daring toast seemed sacrilege,
and suddenly the hungry people shrank in spirit;
They did not fully understand the impious words
but saw flames lick like red curls about his savage head.
The smell of roast was overpowering, choice meats steamed,
and his bold speech was soon forgotten in hunger’s pangs;
all fell to eating ravenously till their brains reeled.
Under his lowering eyebrows Odysseus watched them sharply:
"This is my people, a mess of bellies and stinking breath!
These are my own minds, hands, and thighs, my loins and necks!"
He muttered in his thorny beard, held back his hunger
far from the feast and licked none of the steaming food.
"
— Nikos Kazantzakis (The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel)
while servants cut the roast, mixed jars of wine and water,
and all the gods flew past like the night-breaths of spring.
The chattering female flocks sat down by farther tables,
their fresh prismatic garments gleaming in the moon
as though a crowd of haughty peacocks played in moonlight.
The queen’s throne softly spread with white furs of fox
gaped desolate and bare, for Penelope felt ashamed
to come before her guests after so much murder.
Though all the guests were ravenous, they still refrained,
turning their eyes upon their silent watchful lord
till he should spill wine in libation for the Immortals.
The king then filled a brimming cup, stood up and raised
it high till in the moon the embossed adornments gleamed:
Athena, dwarfed and slender, wrought in purest gold,
pursued around the cup with double-pointed spear
dark lowering herds of angry gods and hairy demons;
she smiled and the sad tenderness of her lean face,
and her embittered fearless glance, seemed almost human.
Star-eyed Odysseus raised Athena’s goblet high
and greeted all, but spoke in a beclouded mood:
“In all my wandering voyages and torturous strife,
the earth, the seas, the winds fought me with frenzied rage;
I was in danger often, both through joy and grief,
of losing priceless goodness, man’s most worthy face.
I raised my arms to the high heavens and cried for help,
but on my head gods hurled their lightning bolts, and laughed.
I then clasped Mother Earth, but she changed many shapes,
and whether as earthquake, beast, or woman, rushed to eat me;
then like a child I gave my hopes to the sea in trust,
piled on my ship my stubbornness, my cares, my virtues,
the poor remaining plunder of god-fighting man,
and then set sail; but suddenly a wild storm burst,
and when I raised my eyes, the sea was strewn with wreckage.
As I swam on, alone between sea and sky,
with but my crooked heart for dog and company,
I heard my mind, upon the crumpling battlements
about my head, yelling with flailing crimson spear.
Earth, sea, and sky rushed backward; I remained alone
with a horned bow slung down my shoulder, shorn of gods
and hopes, a free man standing in the wilderness.
Old comrades, O young men, my island’s newest sprouts,
I drink not to the gods but to man’s dauntless mind.”
All shuddered, for the daring toast seemed sacrilege,
and suddenly the hungry people shrank in spirit;
They did not fully understand the impious words
but saw flames lick like red curls about his savage head.
The smell of roast was overpowering, choice meats steamed,
and his bold speech was soon forgotten in hunger’s pangs;
all fell to eating ravenously till their brains reeled.
Under his lowering eyebrows Odysseus watched them sharply:
"This is my people, a mess of bellies and stinking breath!
These are my own minds, hands, and thighs, my loins and necks!"
He muttered in his thorny beard, held back his hunger
far from the feast and licked none of the steaming food.
"
— Nikos Kazantzakis (The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel)
"Though all the guests were ravenous, they still refrained,
turning their eyes upon their watchful lord
till he should spill wine in libation for the Immortals.
The king then filled a brimming cup, stood up and raised
it high till in the moon the embossed adornments gleamed:
Athena, dwarfed and slender, wrought in purest gold,
pursued around the cup, with double-pointed spear,
dark lowering herds of angry gods and hairy demons;
she smiled, and the sad tenderness of her lean face,
and her embittered fearless glance, seemed almost human.
Star-eyed Odysseus raised Athena's goblet high
and greeted all, but spoke in a beclouded mood:
"In all my wandering voyages and torturous strife,
the earth, the seas, the winds fought me with frenzied rage;
I was in danger often, both through joy and grief,
of losing priceless goodness, man's most worthy face.
I raised my arms to the high heavens and cried for help,
but on my head the gods hurled their lightning bolts and laughed.
I then clasped Mother Earth, but she changed many shapes,
and whether as earthquake, beast, or woman, rushed to eat me.
Then like a child I gave my hopes to the sea in trust,
piled on my ship my stubbornness, my cares, my virtues,
the poor remaining plunder of god-fighting man,
and then set sail, but suddenly a wild storm burst,
and when I raised my eyes the sea was strewn with wreckage.
As I swam on, alone between the sea and sky,
with by my crooked heart for dog and company,
I heard my mind, upon the crumpling battlements
about my head, yelling with flailing crimson spear.
Earth, sea, and sky rushed backward; i remained alone
with a horned bow slung down my shoulder, shorn of gods
and hopes, a free man standing in the wilderness.
Old comrades, O young men, my islands newest sprouts,
I drink not to the gods, but to man's dauntless mind!"
All shuddered, for the daring toast seemed sacrilege,
and suddenly the hungry people shrank in spirit;
they did not fully understand the impious words
but saw flames lick like red curls round his savage head.
The smell of roast was overpowering, choice meats steamed,
and his bold speech was soon forgotten in hunger's pangs;
all fell to eating ravenously till their brains reeled. "
— Nikos Kazantzakis (The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel)
turning their eyes upon their watchful lord
till he should spill wine in libation for the Immortals.
The king then filled a brimming cup, stood up and raised
it high till in the moon the embossed adornments gleamed:
Athena, dwarfed and slender, wrought in purest gold,
pursued around the cup, with double-pointed spear,
dark lowering herds of angry gods and hairy demons;
she smiled, and the sad tenderness of her lean face,
and her embittered fearless glance, seemed almost human.
Star-eyed Odysseus raised Athena's goblet high
and greeted all, but spoke in a beclouded mood:
"In all my wandering voyages and torturous strife,
the earth, the seas, the winds fought me with frenzied rage;
I was in danger often, both through joy and grief,
of losing priceless goodness, man's most worthy face.
I raised my arms to the high heavens and cried for help,
but on my head the gods hurled their lightning bolts and laughed.
I then clasped Mother Earth, but she changed many shapes,
and whether as earthquake, beast, or woman, rushed to eat me.
Then like a child I gave my hopes to the sea in trust,
piled on my ship my stubbornness, my cares, my virtues,
the poor remaining plunder of god-fighting man,
and then set sail, but suddenly a wild storm burst,
and when I raised my eyes the sea was strewn with wreckage.
As I swam on, alone between the sea and sky,
with by my crooked heart for dog and company,
I heard my mind, upon the crumpling battlements
about my head, yelling with flailing crimson spear.
Earth, sea, and sky rushed backward; i remained alone
with a horned bow slung down my shoulder, shorn of gods
and hopes, a free man standing in the wilderness.
Old comrades, O young men, my islands newest sprouts,
I drink not to the gods, but to man's dauntless mind!"
All shuddered, for the daring toast seemed sacrilege,
and suddenly the hungry people shrank in spirit;
they did not fully understand the impious words
but saw flames lick like red curls round his savage head.
The smell of roast was overpowering, choice meats steamed,
and his bold speech was soon forgotten in hunger's pangs;
all fell to eating ravenously till their brains reeled. "
— Nikos Kazantzakis (The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel)
