Quotes from Nikos Kazantzakis

You, too, have a devil inside you but you still don't know his name and because you don't know his name, you suffocate. Baptize him, Boss, and you'll find relief.

Our body is a ship that sails on deep blue waters. What is our goal? To be shipwrecked!

Time is not a field, to be measured in rods, nor a sea, to be measured in miles; it is a heart beat.

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 humor, and others, I'm told, into God. So there must be three sorts of men. I'm not one of the worst, boss, nor yet one of the best. I'm somewhere in between the two. What I eat I turn into work and good humor. That's not too bad, after all!

Life is trouble. Death – no. To live – do you know what that means? To undo your belt and look for trouble!

Lots of people have been afraid of the vanity of things! I´ve overcome it. Lots reflect hard; I have no need to reflect. I don´t rejoice over the good and don´t despair over the bad. If I hear that the Greeks have taken Constantinople, it´s just the same to me as if the Turks were taking Athens.

I'm alone and am suffocating because I'm unable to give voice to my emotions.

Mutluydum; biliyordum bunu. Bir mutluluÄŸu yaÅŸarken onu kavramam?z zordur; ancak o geçip de arkam?za bakt???m?z zaman, birdenbire biraz da hayranl?kla, ne kadar mutlu olduÄŸumuzu anlar?z. Ama ben, bu Girit k?y?s?nda mutluluÄŸu ya??yor, üstelik mutlu olduÄŸumu da biliyordum.

I am not yet a complete person. I am struggling to conquer my weakness. I am good at finding what is right, at enflaming various souls, at lighting up various minds. But I am unable, on my own, to come in contact with people, to battle against indifference, ridicule or even small talk.

And I am glad, because although no one else in the world remembers him now, he will live inside me as long as I live. We shall die together. This grandfather was the first to make me wish not to die - so that the dead within me should not die. Since then, many departed dead ones have sunk, not into the grave, but into my memory, and I know now that as long as I live they shall live too.

You should also know that a true woman is more pleased by the pleasure she gives to a man than by the pleasure she takes from him.

The right path is the ascent.

Anl?yorsun! Anl?yorsun ya, seni bu yiyecek! Anlamasayd?n mutlu olurdun!

But at times I was seized with compassion. A Buddhist compassion, as cold as the conclusion of a metaphysical syllogism. A compassion not only for men but for all life which struggles, cries, weeps, hopes and does not perceive that everything is a phantasmagoria of nothingness.

Because what God wants, that, and only that, is also what we want—but we don't know it. God comes and awakens our souls, revealing to them their real, though unknown, desire. This is the secret, Brother Leo. To do the will of God means to do my own most deeply hidden will.

Gehurkt aan de waterrand volgde ik het wonder. De sterren verbleekten, de hemel werd lichter, en tegen het licht tekenden met fijne pen de bergen, de bomen, de meeuwen zich af. De dag brak aan.

The higher we went the more our spirits seemed to become purged and exalted. Once again I felt the influence on the soul of pure air, easy breathing and a vast horizon. Anyone would think the soul, too, was an animal with lungs and nostrils, and that it needed oxygen, was stifled in the dust or in the midst of too much stale breath.

The bishop escorted Francis a short distance out into the courtyard. Bending over, he said to him in a hushed voice, careful Francis. You're overdoing it. That's how one finds God, Bishop. Francis answered. The bishop shook his head. Even virtue needs moderation; otherwise it can become arrogance. Man stands within the bounds of moderation; God stands outside them. I am heading for God, Bishop. said Francis, and he proceeded hastily towards the street door. He had no time to lose.

My heart is always heavy. No matter where I go, I have no pleasure. I'm hiding. Everything that I do, write and think strikes me as unworthy. And human beings are horrible, ignoble companions. I often think, furthermore, that the only thing worthy of our lofty nature is death.

Free your self from one passion to be dominated by another and nobler one. But isn't that, too, a form of slavery?

S? m? ierÈ›i, st?pâne, eu mi-s cam din topor; vorbele-mi strepezesc dinÈ›ii, se lipesc de ei ca noroiul de picioare ; nu pot s? turui È™i s? spun baliverne, nu pot È™i pace; da' tu m?-nÈ›elegi, nu-i aÈ™a?

The seed is saved—what do we mean by "saved"? It frees the God within it by blossoming, by bearing fruit, by returning to earth once more. Let us help the seed to save itself. 20.

Die every day. Be born every day. Deny everything you have every day. The superior virtue is not to be free but to fight for freedom.

He has given a warm, beloved, living body to all the abstract ideas which were shivering inside me. When he is not there, I start shivering again.