Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes - Page 5

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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

Soul, Bombs, Shells

Nikos Kazantzakis (2012). “Report to Greco”, p.122, Simon and Schuster

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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

Soul, Perception, Flesh

Nikos Kazantzakis, Carl Wildman (1953). “Zorba the Greek”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

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

Nikos Kazantzakis

Rain, Caves, Hood

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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

Powerful, Joy, Soul

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To cleave that sea [the Aegean] in the gentle autumnal season, murmuring the name of each islet, is to my mind the joy most apt to transport the heart of man into paradise.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Heart, Men, Names

Nikos Kazantzakis, Carl Wildman (1953). “Zorba the Greek”, p.16, Simon and Schuster

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

Nikos Kazantzakis

Struggle, Way, Sole

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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

Wall, Creative, Solitude

Nikos Kazantzakis, Carl Wildman (1953). “Zorba the Greek”, p.133, Simon and Schuster

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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

Song, Art, Believe

Nikos Kazantzakis (1958). “the Odyssey a Modern Sequel”

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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

Circles, Names, Light

Nikos Kazantzakis (2012). “Saviors of God”, p.61, Simon and Schuster

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Each man must have his own special route to lead him to God.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Men, Special, Routes

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It was certainly not this mummified and outrageously painted old woman he was seeing before him, but the entire "female species," as it was his custom to call women. The individual disappeared, the features were obliterated, whether young or senile, beautiful or ugly - those were mere unimportant variations. Behind each woman rises the austere, sacred and mysterious face of Aphrodite.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Beautiful, Female, Variation

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Life's true face is the skull.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Skulls, Faces

Nikos Kazantzakis (2012). “Report to Greco”, p.120, Simon and Schuster

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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

Hero, Desire, Together

Nikos Kazantzakis (2012). “Report to Greco”, p.97, Simon and Schuster

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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

Fall, Dark, Two

Nikos Kazantzakis (1958). “the Odyssey a Modern Sequel”

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

Nikos Kazantzakis

Men, Discipline, Desire

Nikos Kazantzakis (2012). “Saviors of God”, p.32, Simon and Schuster

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Man is able, and has the duty, to reach the furthest point on the road he has chosen. Only by means of hope can we attain what is beyond hope.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Mean, Men, Able

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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

Nature, Rain, Flower

Nikos Kazantzakis, Carl Wildman (1953). “Zorba the Greek”, p.94, Simon and Schuster

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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

Dream, Struggle, Men

"Journey to the Morea".

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The dual substance of Christ - the yearning, so human, so superhuman, of man to attain God. [...] has always been a deep inscrutable mystery to me. [...] My principle anguish and source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh. [...] And my soul is the arena where these two armies have clashed and met.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Army, Men, Two

"The Last Temptation of Christ". Book by Nikos Kazantzakis, Simon and Schuster, Prologue, 2012.

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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

Heart, Hands, Mountain

Nikos Kazantzakis (2012). “Report to Greco”, p.384, Simon and Schuster

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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

Communication, Mean, Army

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Inexperience loves to preach.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Inexperience

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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

Sweet, Heart, Dark

Nikos Kazantzakis (1958). “the Odyssey a Modern Sequel”

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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.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Order, Giving, Point Break

Nikos Kazantzakis (2012). “Saviors of God”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

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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

Two, Soul, Decay

Nikos Kazantzakis, Peter Bien (1988). “The Last Temptation of Christ”, p.1, Simon and Schuster

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Born: February 18, 1883
Died: October 26, 1957
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

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