Kazantzakis Quotes & Sayings

Fools, art is a heavy task, more heavy than gold crowns; it's far more difficult to match firm words than armies, they're disciplined troops, unconquered, to be placed in rhythm, the mind's most mighty foe, and not disperse in air. I'd give, believe me, a whole land for one good song, for I know well that only words, that words alone, like the high mountains, have no fear of age or death. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

Let your youth have free reign. It won't come again, so be bold, and no repenting. — Nikos Kazantzakis

- I hope you don't mind my saying so, boss, but I don't think your brain is quite formed yet. How old are you?
- Thirty-five.
- Then it never will be. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

Never in my life have I feared death as much as I feared that resurrection. — Nikos Kazantzakis

The creator wrestles with a hard, invisible substance, a substance far superior to him. Even the greatest victor emerges vanquished, because our deepest secret, the only one that deserves expression, always remains unexpressed. This secret never submits to art's material contours. We suffocate inside every word. Seeing a blossoming tree, a hero, a woman, the morning star, we cry, Ah! Nothing else is able to accommodate our joy. When, analyzing this Ah! we wish to turn it into thought and art in order to impart it to mankind and rescue it from our own dissolution, how it cheapens into brazen, mascaraed words full of air and fancy! — Nikos Kazantzakis

An ardent desire to go took possession of me once more. Not because I wanted to leave - I was quite all right on this Cretan coast, and felt happy and free there and I needed nothing - but because I have always been consumed with one desire; to touch and see as much as possible of the earth and the sea before I die. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

A slave's soul has no worth, my brothers; it lacks strength to tread on this great earth with gallantry and freedom. I pity the poor slaves, they're nought but airy mist, a light breeze scatters them, a fragrance knocks them down; it's only just they crawl on the earth on hands and knees. Today I'll write a hymn to God and pray for this great grace. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

The canary began to sing again. The sun had struck it, and its throat and tiny breast had filled with song. Francis gazed at it for a long time, not speaking, his mouth hanging half opened, his eyes dimmed with tears.
"The canary is like man's soul," he whispered finally. "It sees bars round it, but instead if despairing, it sings. It sings, and wait and see, Brother Leo: one day its song shall break the bars. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

The more he approached the people and perceived their anger-filled eyes and the dark, tortured fierceness of their expressions, the more his heart stirred, the more his bowels flooded with deep sympathy and love. These are the people, he reflected. They are all brothers, every one of them, but they do not know it - and that is why they suffer. If they knew it, what celebrations there would be, what hugging and kissing, what happiness! — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

My son, I carry on as if I should never die.' I replied: 'And I carry on as
if I was going to die any minute. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

I knew that no matter what door you knock on in a Cretan village, it will be opened for you. A meal will be served in your honor, and you will sleep between the best sheets in the house. In Crete, the stranger is still the unknown god. Before him, all doors and all hearts are opened. — Nikos Kazantzakis

He's dead."

"His deliverance has come," said someone else.

"The two friends have parted and returned to their homes," a third person whispered, "the flesh to the soil and the soul to God. — Nikos Kazantzakis

I didn't know. I was fully aware of what would be destroyed. I did not know what would be built out of the ruins. No one can know that with any degree of certainty, I thought. The world is tangible, solid, we live in it and are struggling with it every moment it exist. The world of the future is not yet born — Nikos Kazantzakis

I hope for nothing
I fear nothing
I am free — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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

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

I an not tired, but the night is coming. — Nikos Kazantzakis

If the soul within us does not change, Judas, the world outside us will never change. The enemy is within, the Romans are within, salvation starts from within! — Nikos Kazantzakis

I knew that over and above the truth, there exists another duty which is much more important and much more human. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Everything in this world has a hidden meaning. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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

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. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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

Man cannot sprout wings unless he has first reached the brink of the abyss! — Nikos Kazantzakis

So few in reality are the true necessities of man — Nikos Kazantzakis

All roads lead to the earth; the abyss leads to God. Jump! — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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

In religions which have lost their creative spark, the gods eventually become no more than poetic motifs or ornaments for decorating human solitude and walls. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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

Within this arena, which grows more stable night after day, generations work and love and hope and vanish. New generations tread on the corpses of their fathers, continue the work above the abyss and struggle to tame the dread mystery. How? By cultivating a single field, by kissing a woman, by studying a stone, an animal, an idea. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Oh, yes. Wife. Children. Home. Everything. The full catastrophe. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Before me is the abyss. How can I leap across it? And if I do not leap, how shall I ever be able to reach God? — Nikos Kazantzakis

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 - — Nikos Kazantzakis

I tried to establish order over the chaos of my imagination, but this essence, the same that presented itself to me still hazily when I was a child, has always struck me as the very heart of truth. It is our duty to set ourselves an end beyond our individual concerns, beyond our convenient, agreeable habits, higher than our own selves, and disdaining laughter, hunger, even death, to toil night and day to attain that end. No, not to attain it. The self-respecting soul, as soon as he reaches his goal, places it still further away. Not to attain it, but never to halt in the ascent. Only thus does life acquire nobility and oneness. — Nikos Kazantzakis

The struggle between God and man breaks out in everyone, together with the longing for reconciliation ... God does not love weak souls and flabby flesh. The spirit desires to wrestle with flesh which is strong and full of resistance. It is a carnivorous bird which is incessantly hungry; it eats flesh and, by assimilating it, makes it disappear. — Nikos Kazantzakis

ADAM AND EVE, sitting in Paradise, chatting:
"If we could only open the gate and leave," says Eve.
"To go where, my dearest?"
"If we could only open the gate and leave!"
"Outside is sickness, pain, death!"
"If we could only open the gate and leave! — Nikos Kazantzakis

Every integral man has inside him, in his heart of hearts, a mystic center around which all else revolves. This mystic whirling lends unity to his thoughts and actions; it helps him find or invent the cosmic harmony. For some this center is love, for others kindness or beauty, others the thirst for knowledge or the longing for gold and power. They examine the relative value of all else and subordinate it to this central passion. — Nikos Kazantzakis

In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can. — Nikos Kazantzakis

They were panting dwarfs, imps gasping for breath, and their beards dragged along the ground. Each carried a strange implement of torture. Some held bloody leather belts studded with iron, some clasp knives and ox goads, some thick, wide-headed nails. Three midgets whose behinds nearly scraped the ground carried a massive, unwieldy cross; and last of all came the vilest of the lot, a cross-eyed pygmy holding a crown of thorns. — Nikos Kazantzakis

I hope nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. — Nikos Kazantzakis

The Lord preserve us from sainthood — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

Tell me what you do with the food you eat, and I'll tell you who you are. Some turn their food into fat and manure, some into work and good humour, and others, I'm told, into God. So there must be three sorts of men. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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. — Nikos Kazantzakis

I said only one word, brought only one message: Love. Love - nothing else. — Nikos Kazantzakis

There is only one essence, always the same. As yet, man has found no other means to elevate himself - none but the routing of matter and the submission of the individual to an end which transcends the individual, even though that end be chimerical. When the heart believes and loves, nothing chimerical exists; nothing exists but — Nikos Kazantzakis

O brain, be flowers that nightingales may come to sing! — Nikos Kazantzakis

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. — Nikos Kazantzakis

If they were to ask me what road leads to heaven, I would answer them: the most difficult! — Nikos Kazantzakis

I was once more struck by the truth of the ancient saying: 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. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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

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

They had no fear of death, and whoever has no fear of death - the centurion had often meditated on this here in the East - whoever has no fear of death is immortal. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

Religion is opium for the masses — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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

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

One of man's greatest obligations is anger. — Nikos Kazantzakis

We are to blame if reality does not take the form we desire. Whatever we have not desired with sufficient strength, that we call nonexistent. Desire it, imbrue it with your blood, your sweat, your tears, and it will take on a body. Reality is nothing more than the chimera subjected to our desire and our suffering. — Nikos Kazantzakis

There's a devil inside me which cries, "You're not the son of the Carpenter, you're the son of King David! You are not a man, you are the Son of man whom Daniel prophesied." And still more: "The Son of God! And still more: God! — Nikos Kazantzakis

At night the jackals came and ate their feet, and the next morning crows flew down and ate their eyes. — Nikos Kazantzakis

The dissolute and unlawful king came: Herod! I saw him with my own eyes when he called me to Jericho to heal him. I took along my secret herbs - I knew all about such lore - and went. I went, and from that day on, I have not been able to eat meat, for I saw his putrescent flesh; I have not been able to drink wine, for I saw his blood filled with worms. I have retained his stench in my nostrils for over thirty years. — Nikos Kazantzakis

What happiness this is: to fly, skimming over the earth just as we do in our dreams! Life has become a dream. Can this be the meaning of paradise? — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

To succeed, you must first believe you can. — Nikos Kazantzakis

We have our brush and colors - paint Paradise and in we go. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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

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

I was ill before I fell ill. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

Gradually I began to understand that it does not matter very much what problem, whether big or small, is tormenting us; the only thing that matters it that we be tormented, that we find a ground for being tormented. In other words, that we exercise our minds in order to keep certainty from turning us into idiots, that we fight to open every closed door we find in front of us. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Every man is half God, half man; he is both spirit and flesh. That is why the mystery of Christ is not simply a mystery for a particular creed: It is universal. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

Luck is blind, they say. It can't see where it's going and keeps running into people ... and the people it knocks into we call lucky! Well, to hell with luck if it's like that, I say! — Nikos Kazantzakis

Is he good? Or is he bad? That's the only thing I ask nowadays. And as I grow older - I'd swear this on the last crust I eat - I feel I shan't even go on asking that! Whether a man's good or bad, I'm sorry for him, for all of 'em. The sight of a man just rends my insides, even if I act as though I don't care a damn! There he is, poor devil, I think, he also eats and drinks and makes love and is frightened, whoever he is: he has his God and his devil just the same, and he'll peg out and lie as stiff as a board beneath the ground and be food for worms, just the same. Poor devil! We're all brothers! All worm-meat! — Nikos Kazantzakis

I surrender myself to everything. I love, I feel pain, I struggle. The world seems to me wider than the mind, my heart a dark and almighty mystery. — Nikos Kazantzakis

An old fisherman heard all this and shook his head. "This is what happens to those who don't get married," he said. "All they want to do is save the world, by hook or by crook. The sperm rises to their heads and attacks their brains. For God's sake, all of you: get married, let your forces loose on women and have children in order to calm yourselves! — Nikos Kazantzakis

Every village has its simpleton, and if one does not exist they invent one to pass the time. — 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

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