Quotes from Nikos Kazantzakis

In order to mount to the Cross, the summit of sacrifice, and to God, the summit of immateriality, Christ passed through all the stages which the man who struggles passes through.

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.

He who is invisible sees more clearly, hears more clearly, and is better able to read the thoughts of men.

God, what is all this talk put out by the popes? Paradise is here, my good man. God, give me no other paradise!

Discipline is the highest of all virtues. Only so may strength and desire be counterbalanced and the endeavors of man bear fruit.

so few in reality are the true necessities of man

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

No wide road leads to God.

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

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?

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

How simple and frugal a thing is happiness.

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.

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.

A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.

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

Happiness is a simple everyday miracle, like water, and we are not aware of it.

A weak soul does not have the endurance to resist the flesh for very long. It grows heavy, becomes flesh itself, and the contest ends. But among responsible men, men who keep their eyes riveted day and night upon the Supreme Duty, the conflict between flesh and spirit breaks out mercilessly and may last until death.

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.

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

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!

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

My principal anguish, and the wellspring of all my joys and sorrows, has been the incessant merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh.

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