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 KAZANTZAKISHow 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!
More Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes
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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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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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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!
NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS -
As you walk, you cut open and create that river bed into which the stream of your descendants shall enter and flow.
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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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I possess no weapon but love. With that I have come to do battle. Help me!
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Beauty always had a purpose: to be of service to life.
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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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My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.
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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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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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To succeed, you must first believe you can.
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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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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.
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Lions and Lambs, love and force, light and fire, good and evil: all things climb the same mountain, the mountain of God.
NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS