110+ Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes On Crete, Russia And Philosophical

Nikos Kazantzakis was a Greek writer, best known for his novel Zorba the Greek. He was a prolific writer, who wrote novels, plays, travel books, and philosophical works. His writings often explored the themes of individual freedom, existentialism, and existential despair. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Nikos Kazantzakis on love, crete, russia.

Top 10 Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes

1. By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.
2. As I watched the seagulls, I thought, That's the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust.
3. I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.
4. 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.
5. Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.
6. My soul comes from better worlds and I have an incurable homesickness of the stars.
7. I am a weak, ephemeral creature made of mud and dream. But I feel all the powers of the universe whirling within me.
8. I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.
9. The only way to save yourself is to endeavor to save others.
10. 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 Image Quotes

Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality. — Nikos Kazantzakis

The only way to save yourself is to endeavor to save others. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

Nikos Kazantzakis Short Quotes

• How simple and frugal a thing is happiness.
• There is no harsher means of punishment, than to answer malice with kindness.
• The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.
• Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.
• Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.
• The canary is like a man's soul. It sees bars around it, but instead of despairing, it sings.
• The ultimate, most holy form of theory is action.
• The doors of heaven and hell are adjacent and identical.
• Each man must have his own special route to lead him to God.
• My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.

Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes About Love

Inexperience loves to preach. — Nikos Kazantzakis

We are not men, to have need of another, an eternal life; we are women, and for us one moment with man we love is everlasting Paradise, one moment far from the man we love is everlasting hell. It is here on earth that we women love out eternity — 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

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

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

I loved my body and did not want it to perish; I loved my soul and did not want it to decay. I have fought to reconcile these two primordial forces. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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

Lions and Lambs, love and force, light and fire, good and evil: all things climb the same mountain, the mountain of God. — 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

Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes About World

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

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

Truly, everything in this world depended on time. Time ripened all. If you had time, you succeeded in working the human mud internally and turning it into spirit. Then you did not fear death. If you did not have time, you perished. — Nikos Kazantzakis

This, I thought, is how great visionaries and poets see everything- as if for the first time. Each morning they see a new world before their eyes; they do not really see it, they create it. — Nikos Kazantzakis

May he be cursed on earth who gives his trust to virtue, that bankrupt crone who takes our life's pure gold and gives but bad receipts for payment in the lower world. Ah, passers-by that stroll, travelers that come and go, all that I had, I placed on virtue, and lost the game! — Nikos Kazantzakis

Thus night with all her snares passed through the upper world and baited all heads sweetly, fed all foolish hopes, for night can bring to men all shrewish day denies, wrapped as a gift in the green leaves of opiate dream. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

As long as our souls remain strong, that is all that matters; as long as they don't decline. Because with the fall of certain souls in this world, the world itself will collapse. These are the pillars which support it. They are few, but enough. — Nikos Kazantzakis

With the world in the state it is today, whoever is virtuous must be so to the point of sainthood, and even beyond; whoever is a sinner must be so to the point of bestiality and even beyond. Today the middle road is no more. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes About Fear

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

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 . — Nikos Kazantzakis

I expect nothing. I fear no one. I am free. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. inscription on Kazantakis's tomb in Heraklion, Greece — Nikos Kazantzakis

Nikos Kazantzakis Famous Quotes And Sayings

Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality. — 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

The landscape affects the human psyche - the soul, the body and the innermost contemplations - like music. Every time you feel nature deeper you resonate better with her, finding new elements of balance and freedom. — Nikos Kazantzakis

I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been. — Nikos Kazantzakis

The only way to save yourself is to endeavor to save others. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Everything in this world has a hidden meaning, I thought. Men, animals, trees, stars, they are all hieroglyphics; woe to anyone who begins to decipher them and guess what they mean.... When you see them, you do not understand them. You think they are really men, animals, trees, stars. It is only years later, too late, that you understand. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises. — Nikos Kazantzakis

What is truth? What is falsehood? Whatever gives wings to men, whatever produces great works and great souls and lifts up a man's height above the earth - that's true. Whatever clips off man's wings - that's false. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Be always restless, unsatisfied, unconforming. Whenever a habit becomes convenient, smash it! The greatest sin of all is satisfaction. — Nikos Kazantzakis

My principle anguish and the source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh. — Nikos Kazantzakis

A woman's body is a dark and monstrous mystery; between her supple thighs a heavy whirlpool swirls, two rivers crash, and woe to him who slips and falls! — 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

Man hurries, God does not. That is why man's works are uncertain and maimed, while God's are flawless and sure. My eyes welling with tears, I vowed never to transgress this eternal law again. Like a tree I would be blasted by wind, struck by sun and rain, and would wait with confidence; the long-desired hour of flowering and fruit would come. — 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

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. — 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 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

Throughout my life, my greatest benefactors have been my dreams and my travels; very few men, living or dead, have helped me in my struggle. — 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

I say one thing, you write another, and those who read you understand still something else! I say: cross, death, kingdom of heaven, God...and what do you understand? Each of you attaches his own suffering, interests and desires to each of these sacred words, and my words disappear, my soul is lost. I can't stand it any longer! — Nikos Kazantzakis

Today, any action anywhere on earth has an immediate repercussion on all five continents. News of a victory of the Eastern armies in Morocco or Shanghai travels instantly, thanks to modern means of communication, to all Eastern peoples and fills them with enthusiasm and faith. This phenomenon is, of course, unprecedented in the history of man. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Free yourself from one passion to be dominated by another and nobler one. But is not that, too, a form of slavery? To sacrifice oneself to an idea, to a race, to God? Or does it mean that the higher the model the longer the longer the tether of our slavery? — Nikos Kazantzakis

Freedom was my first great desire. The second, which remains hidden within me to this day, tormenting me, was the desire for sanctity. Hero together with saint: such is mankind's supreme model. — 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. The more the intelligence unveils and violates the secrets of Nature, the more the danger increases and the heart shrinks. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Two equally steep and bold paths may lead to the same peak. To act as if death did not exist, or to act thinking every minute of death, is perhaps the same thing. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Every obstacle in his journey became a milestone, an occasion for further triumph. We have a model in front of us now, a model who blazes our trail and gives us strength. — 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

The human soul is heavy, clumsy, held in the mud of the flesh. Its perceptions are still coarse and brutish. It can divine nothing clearly, nothing with certainty. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Life's true face is the skull. — Nikos Kazantzakis

We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Die every day. Be reborn again every day. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Death's dry bones glowed with light in the erotic dark but he woke not nor felt the two warm bodies merge; the male worm then took heart and in his wife's ear whispered: "With one sweet kiss, dear wife, we've conquered conquering Death! — Nikos Kazantzakis

I should learn to run, to wrestle, to swim, to ride horses, to row, to drive a car, to fire a rifle. I should fill my soul with flesh. I should fill my flesh with soul. In fact, I should reconcile at last within me the two internal antagonists. — 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

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

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

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! — 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

Every word is an adamantine shell which encloses a great explosive force. To discover its meaning you must let it burst inside you like a bomb and in this way liberate the soul which it imprisons. — Nikos Kazantzakis

What is love? It is not simply compassion, not simply kindness. In compassion there are two: the one who suffers and the one who feels compassion. In kindness there are two: the one who gives and the one who receives. But in love there is only one; the two join, unite, become inseparable. The I and the you vanish. To love means to lose oneself in the beloved. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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 Kazantzakis

No! No! Never acknowledge the limitations of man. Smash all boundaries! Deny whatever your eyes see. Die every moment, but say: Death does not exist.' — Nikos Kazantzakis

Good Lord, how can the rich bear to die? — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

When shall I at last retire into solitude alone, without companions, without joy and without sorrow, with only the sacred certainty that all is a dream? When, in my rags—without desires—shall I retire contented into the mountains? When, seeing that my body is merely sickness and crime, age and death, shall I—free, fearless, and blissful—retire to the forest? When? When, oh when? — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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

When everything goes wrong, what a joy to test your soul and see if it has endurance and courage! An invisible and all-powerful enemy—some call him God, others the Devil, seem to rush upon us to destroy us; but we are not destroyed. — Nikos Kazantzakis

You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. ‘What, grandfather!’ I exclaimed. ‘Planting an almond tree?’ And he, bent as he was, turned around and said: ‘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.’ Which of us was right, boss? — Nikos Kazantzakis

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. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

The sole way to save oneself is to save others. Or to struggle to save others -even that is sufficient. — Nikos Kazantzakis

The only thing I know is this: I am full of wounds and still standing on my feet. — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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

Time is round, and it rolls quickly. — 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

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

Reach what you cannot — Nikos Kazantzakis

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

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

If only we know, boss, what the stones and rain and flowers say. Maybe they call-call us-and we don't hear them. When will people's ears open, boss? When shall we have our eyes open to see? When shall we open our arms to embrace everything-stones, rain, flowers, and people? What do you think about that, boss? And what do your books have to say about that? — 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

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

Overdraw me, Lord, and who cares if I break. — Nikos Kazantzakis

How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart. — Nikos Kazantzakis

We have seen the highest circle of spiraling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name we wished: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Ultimate Despair, Silence. — Nikos Kazantzakis

I collect my tools: sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing, intellect. Night has fallen. — Nikos Kazantzakis

I believe I'm a caterpillar buried deep down under the ground. The entire earth is above me, crushing me and I begin to bore through the soil, making a passage to the surface so that I can penetrate the crust and issue into the light. It's hard work boring through the entire earth, but I'm able to be patient because I have a strong premonition that as soon as I do issue into the light I shall become a butterfly. — Nikos Kazantzakis

I felt this was my duty, my sole duty: to reconcile the irreconcilables, to draw the thick ancestral darkness out of my loins and transform it, to the best of my ability, into light. — 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

Lord, bend me, or I shall rot. Lord do not bend me too much, for I shall break. Lord bend me too much, who cares if I break! — Nikos Kazantzakis

Life Lessons by Nikos Kazantzakis

1. Nikos Kazantzakis taught that life is a journey of self-discovery and that we should embrace the unknown and strive to become our best selves.
2. He believed that we should never be afraid to take risks and to always be open to new experiences and ideas.
3. He also taught that we should strive to live with courage, passion, and integrity, and to never give up on our dreams.