Nikos Kazantzakis was a Greek writer who is renowned for his novels, travelogues and plays. He is regarded as one of the greatest literary personalities in Modern Greek literature. Kazantzakis attended the University of Athens, where he studied law and then went on to study at the famous Sorbonne in Paris, from where he was awarded his doctorate in philosophy in 1909. However, it was as a novelist that he became a global star and according to many; he was deeply influenced by the work of Freidrich Nietzche. Some of his most well-known works include, ‘Zorba the Greek’, ‘Captain Michalis’, ‘Christ Recrucified’, ‘Report to Greco’, ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ and ‘The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel’ among others. Jesus Christ became a recurring theme in many of his works. Kazantzakis’ work was widely translated and his writings were nominated for the ‘Nobel Prize in Literature’ a staggering 9 times but he did not win the big prize. We bring to you a treasure trove of quotes and thoughts that have been excerpted from his novels, books, plays and writings. Here is a collection of some of the best quotes from Nikos Kazantzakis’s life and works.
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.
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.
Nikos Kazantzakis
God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises.
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.
Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.
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.
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
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?
Let your youth have free reign, it won't come again, so be bold and no repenting.
Nikos Kazantzakis
Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.
Nikos Kazantzakis
When everyone drowns and I'm the only one to escape, God is protecting me. When everyone else is saved and I'm the only one to drown, God is protecting me then too.
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.
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
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
Only one woman exists in this world, one woman with countless faces.
Nikos Kazantzakis
My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.
Nikos Kazantzakis
Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all, in my view, is not to have one.
Nikos Kazantzakis
If I were fire, I would burn; if I were a woodcutter, I would strike. But I am a heart, and I love.
The sole way to save oneself is to save others. Or to struggle to save others -even that is sufficient.
Nikos Kazantzakis
Let people be, boss; don't open their eyes. And supposing you did, what'd they see? Their misery! Leave their eyes closed, boss, and let them go on dreaming!
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
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.
Ideal 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 bridges of their own.
Nikos Kazantzakis
Life's true face is the skull.
Nikos Kazantzakis
When you've made up your mind, no use lagging behind, go ahead and no relenting,
Let your youth have free reign, it won't come again, so be bold and no repenting.
Nikos Kazantzakis
Never in my life have I feared death as much as I feared that resurrection.
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.
If the soul within us does not change, Judas, the world outside us will never change. The enemy is within, the Romans are within, salvation starts from within!
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.
Luck is blind, they say. It can’t see where it’s going and keeps running into people…and the people it knocks into we call lucky! Well, to hell with luck if it's like that, I say!
A prophet is the one who, when everyone else despairs, hopes. And when everyone else hopes, he despairs. You’ll ask me why. It’s because he has mastered the Great Secret: that the Wheel turns.
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.” - Zorba.
Never in my life had I felt so tangibly and with such astonishment that hate, by passing successively through comprehension, mercy, and sympathy, can be transformed into love.
But then I was young, and to be young means to undertake to demolish the world and to have the gall to wish to erect a new and better one in its place.
Confucius says: 'Many seek happiness higher than man; others beneath him. But happiness is the
same height as man.' That is true. So there must be a happiness to suit every man's stature.
Nikos Kazantzakis
I'm fighting to save myself, and save myself, I will." Mary Magdalene in The Last Temptation of Christ
The great difference between us is this: you believe you have found salvation, and believing this, you are saved; I believe that salvation doesn’t exist, and believing this, I am saved.
