Quotes from Nikos Kazantzakis

I headed abroad once again, suffering from the incurable Faustian disease of learning.

How does the light of a star set out and plunge into black eternity in its immortal course? The star dies, but the light never dies; such also is the cry of freedom.

This distance between my dreams and my capabilities makes me so furious that I want to die–to die from spite and also from grief.

God shouts: "Burn your houses! I am coming! Whoever has a house cannot receive me! 29. Ã¢â'¬Å"Burn your ideas, smash your thoughts! Whoever has found the solution cannot find me. 30. Ã¢â'¬Å"I love the hungry, the restless, the vagabonds. They are the ones who brood eternally on hunger, on rebellion, on the endless road—on ME! 31. Ã¢â'¬Å"I am coming! Leave your wives, your children, your ideas, and follow me. I am the great Vagabond.

I don't desire anything right now. My desires have frozen in my breast. A lethargy is killing my heart.

My soul is seething, agitated by a certain vague desire, an incomprehensible soul-fluttering, a magical attraction, a hidden pain.

Everything is of God, he reflected; everything has two meanings, one manifest, one hidden.

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.

As far as I can see, your lordship's never been hungry, never killed, never stolen. what ever can you know of the world? You've got an innocent's brain and you skin's never felt the sun

All love is one; it is exactly the same whether it be for wife, son, mother, fatherland, or for an idea, or God.

La única forma de salvarse uno mismo es luchar para salvar a los otros…».

Poverty and nakedness are nothing, provided you have a good wife

My joys here are great, because they are very simple and spring from the everlasting elements: the pure air, the sun, the sea and the wheaten loaf.

One of man's greatest obligations is anger.

All my life, I struggled to stretch my mind to the breaking point, until it began to creak, in order to create a great thought which might be able to give a new meaning to life, a new meaning to death, and to console mankind.

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

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

The more devils we have within us, the more chance we have to form angels.

You gave me your curse, holy Fathers. I give you a blessing: May you be as moral and religious as I am.

I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.

There is only one woman in the world. One woman, with many faces.

"Life is trouble," Zorba continued. "Death, no. To live—do you know what that means? To undo your belt and look for trouble!"

You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint paradise, then in you go.

I expect nothing. I fear no one. I am free.