The major and almost only theme of all my work is the struggle of man with “God”: the unyielding, inextinguishable struggle of the naked worm called “man” against the terrifying power and darkness of the forces within him and around him.
NIKOS KAZANTZAKISTo 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.
More Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes
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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?
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The ultimate, most holy form of theory is action.
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I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. inscription on Kazantakis’s tomb in Heraklion, Greece
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By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.
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Happy the youth who believes that his duty is to remake the world and bring it more in accord with virtue and justice, more in accord with his own heart. Woe to whoever commences his life without lunacy.
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Be always restless, unsatisfied, unconforming. Whenever a habit becomes convenient, smash it! The greatest sin of all is satisfaction.
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How could I, who loved life so intensely, have let myself be entangled for so long in that balderdash of books and paper blackened with ink!
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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 .
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Discipline is the highest of all virtues. Only so may strength and desire be counterbalanced and the endeavors of man bear fruit.
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I possess no weapon but love. With that I have come to do battle. Help me!
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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.
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What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams.
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My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.
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To succeed, you must first believe you can.
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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