Kazantzakis Quotes

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

A man needs a little madness, or else... he never dares cut the rope and be free.

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.

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

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

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.

I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed.

Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.

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

You have everything but one thing: madness. A man needs a little madness or else - he never dares cut the rope and be free.

Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean sea.

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.

Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.

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.

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!

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?

Once, I saw a bee drown in honey, and I understood.

قلت لشجرة اللوز: حدثيني عن الله , فأزهرت شجرة اللوز

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?

Reach what you cannot

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

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.

If I were fire, I would burn; if I were a woodcutter, I would strike. But I am a heart, and I love.

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?

أنا مخلوق مؤقت و ضعيف، مصنوع من طين و أحلام لكني أدرك أن في داخلي تصطخب كل قوى الكون

What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams.

عليك أن تموت كل يوم، و أن تولد كل يوم، وان ترفض ما عندك كل يوم فالفضيلة الكبرى ليست في أن تكون حرا، و انما في ان تناضل من أجل الحرية لا تتواضع و تتسائل "هل سننتصر؟ هن سنهزم؟" بل حارب وفي كل لحظة من حياتك أجعل من مغامرة العالم مغامرتك

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.

All my life one of my greatest desires has been to travel-to see and touch unknown countries, to swim in unknown seas, to circle the globe, observing new lands, seas, people, and ideas with insatiable appetite, to see everything for the first time and for the last time, casting a slow, prolonged glance, then to close my eyes and feel the riches deposit themselves inside me calmly or stormily according to their pleasure, until time passes them at last through its fine sieve, straining the quintessence out of all the joys and sorrows.

يا لمرارة الافتراق ببطء عن الأحباء! من الأفضل الانقطاع عنهم مرّةً واحدة، والعودة إلى الوحدة.

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

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.

دع الناس مطمئنين, أيها الرئيس لاتفتح أعينهم, فما الذي سيرون؟ بؤسهم! دعهم إذن مستمرين في أحلامهم.

Beauty is merciless. You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.

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!

Only one woman exists in this world, one woman with countless faces.

Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.

قليل من الأشياء, وكثيرٌ من القلب.

حين تتملكك إحدى العادات، عليك أن تحطمها.

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.

هناك أسوأ ممن هو أصم , وهو الذي لا يريد أن يسمع

هذه هي الحرية . أن تهوى شيئا ما ، و فجأة تتغلب على هواك و تلقي بكنزك في الهواء . أن تتحرر من هوى ، لتخضع لهوى آخر أكثر نبلا منه.

كم هي مؤلمة ساعة الفراق البطيئة، خاصة فراق الأصدقاء العظام. فالأفضل الانقطاع دفعة واحدة، والعودة إلى الوحدة

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.

السعادة هي أن تؤدي واجبك ، وكلّما كان الواجب أصعب ، كانت السعادة أعظم.

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.

أنا لست طيبا، ولست نقيا، و لست مطمئنا. السعادة لا تطاق و الشقاء لا يطاق. أنا مليء بهمهمات ذعر و ظلام، أتدفق دموعا و دماء داخل زريبة لحمي الساخنة هذه

My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.

أمنح نفسي كل شيْ، أحب، أتألم، أكافح. عالمي يمتد لأبعد مما يتخيل العقل

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!

You will, Judas, my brother. God will give you the strength, as much as you lack, because it is necessary—it is necessary for me to be killed and for you to betray me. We two must save the world. Help me." Judas bowed his head. After a moment he asked, "If you had to betray your master, would you do it?" Jesus reflected for a long time. Finally he said, "No, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to. That is why God pitied me and gave me the easier task: to be crucified.

Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all, in my view, is not to have one.

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.

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

When an almond tree became covered with blossoms in the heart of winter, all the trees around it began to jeer. 'What vanity,' they screamed, 'what insolence! Just think, it believes it can bring spring in this way!' The flowers of the almond tree blushed for shame. 'Forgive me, my sisters,' said the tree. 'I swear I did not want to blossom, but suddenly I felt a warm springtime breeze in my heart.

Throughout my life my greatest benefactors have been my travels and my dreams. Very few men, living or dead, have helped me in my struggles.

My soul comes from better worlds and I have an incurable homesickness of the stars.

آن گاه که جدال در تن آدمی شروع می شود؛ آن آغاز حرکت به سوی کمال است

so few in reality are the true necessities of man

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?

Once more there sounded within me the terrible warning that there is only one life for all men, that there is only one life for all men, that there is no other and that all that can be enjoyed must be enjoyed here. In eternity no other chance will be given to us.

There is only one sin god will not forgive Boss, and that is to deny a woman who is in wanting ~ Zorba

انني لا أؤمن بشيء ، ولا بأي شخص آخر ، بل بزوربا وحده . ليس لأن زوربا أفضل من الآخرين ليس ذلك مطلقا مطلقا ، انه بهيمة هو الآخر ، لكنني أؤمن بزوربا لأنه الوحيد الذي يقع تحت سلطتي ، الوحيد الذي أعرفه، و كل الآخرين انما هم أشباح . عندما أموت أنا ، فكل شيء يموت . إن كل العالم الزوربي سينهار دفعة واحدة.

The truth is that we all are one, that all of us together create god, that god is not man's ancestor, but his descendant.

Life's true face is the skull.

نحن عندما نتمتع بالسَعادة نجِد صعوبَة في وعيها . و لكن عندما تمضي السّعادة و ننظُر خلفنا إليها نتأكد فجأة كَم كُنّا سُعداء .

الحرية هي أن تهوى شيئاً ما، وأن تجمع قطع الذهب، وفجأة تتغلب على هواك وتلقي بكنزك في الهواء، أن تتحرر من هوى لتخضع لهوى آخر أكثر نبلاً منه.

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.

اصبر، تأمل، ثـق

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

إن كل شيء يحدث في هذا العالم ظالم، جائر، غير عادل، ولن أكون طرفًا فيه.

وأنت وحدك يا إلهي تبقى راسخاً،عليكَ أتوكل ! فثبت قدمي ، لأنَّ عقلي يتأرجح !

Life on earth means: the sprouting of wings.

لا أطلب بداية العالم ولا نهايته، أتبع ايقاع قلبي الرهيب و أذهب

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.

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.

كم هو حزين ان تسير بمفردك على ساحل البحر

تو هیچگاه نه گرسنه بوده ای، نه کسی را کشته ای، نه دزدی کرده ای و نه مرتکب زنا شده ای، پس چطور می خواهی دنیا را بشناسی و درباره کارهایش اظهار نظر کنی؟ افکارت بچه گانه است ارباب! نه زحمتی کشیده ای و نه رنجی برده ای. حتی هیچگاه آفتاب پوست بدنت را گرم نکرده است

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.

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.

Once more I realized to what an extent earthly happiness is made to the measure of man. It is not a rare bird which we must pursue at one moment in heaven, at the next in our minds. Happiness is a domestic bird found in our own courtyards.

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.

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

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!

عندما تضع زجاجة مكبرة تحت الشمس وتجمع كل الأشعة على نقطة واحدة؟ إن هذه النقطة سرعان ما تشتعل. لماذا؟ لأن قوة الشمس لم تتوزع ، لقد اجتمعت كلها على هذه النقطة الواحدة. وكذلك روح الإنسان ، إننا نقوم بالمعجزات بتركيز روحنا على شئ واحد لاغير ، أتفهم ، يا زوربا؟

أنا واثق بأنني جزء من الكون المرئي و اللا مرئي. نحن شيء واحد، القوى التي تعمل بداخلي و القوى الاخرى التي تدفعني لاعيش،و القوى التي تدفعني لأموت، هي بالتأكيد قواك أنت ايضا. أنا لست جسدا معلقا لا جذور له في العالم، أنا تراب من ترابه و نفس من أنفاسه لا اخاف وحدي و لا آمل وحدي و لا أًصيح وحدي، قطاع كبير وقوى هائلة من الكون تخاف و تأمل و تصيح معي

No, you're not free," he said. "The string you're tied to is perhaps no longer than other people's. That's all. You're on a long piece of string, boss; you come and go, and think you're free, but you never cut the string in two. And when people don't cut that string . . ." "I'll cut it some day!" I said defiantly, because Zorba's words had touched an open wound in me and hurt. "It's difficult, boss, very difficult. You need a touch of folly to do that; folly, d'you see? You have to risk everything! But you've got such a strong head, it'll always get the better of you. A man's head is like a grocer; it keeps accounts: I've paid so much and earned so much and that means a profit of this much or a loss of that much! The head's a careful little shopkeeper; it never risks all it has, always keeps something in reserve. It never breaks the string. Ah no! It hangs on tight to it, the bastard! If the string slips out of its grasp, the head, poor devil, is lost, finished! But if a man doesn't break the string, tell me, what flavor is left in life? The flavor of camomile, weak camomile tea! Nothing like rum-that makes you see life inside out!

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 tether of our slavery? Then we can enjoy ourselves and frolic in a more spacious arena and die without having come to the end of the tether. Is that, then, what we call liberty?

Every integral man has inside him, in his heart of hearts, a mystic center around which all else revolves. This mystic whirling lends unity to his thoughts and actions; it helps him find or invent the cosmic harmony. For some this center is love, for others kindness or beauty, others the thirst for knowledge or the longing for gold and power. They examine the relative value of all else and subordinate it to this central passion.

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!' He looked at me wickedly and started laughing. 'As for you, boss,' he said, 'I think you do your level best to turn what you eat into God. But you can't quite manage it, and that torments you. The same thing's happening to you as happened to the crow.' 'What happened to the crow, Zorba?' 'Well, you see, he used to walk respectably, properly - well, like a crow. But one day he got it into his head to try and strut about like a pigeon. And from that time on the poor fellow couldn't for the life of him recall his own way of walking. He was all mixed up, don't you see? He just hobbled about.

With the passage of days in this godly isolation [desert], my heart grew calm. It seemed to fill with answers. I did not ask questions any more; I was certain. Everything - where we came from, where we are going, what our purpose is on earth - struck me as extremely sure and simple in this God-trodden isolation. Little by little my blood took on the godly rhythm. Matins, Divine Liturgy, vespers, psalmodies, the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening, the constellations suspended like chandeliers each night over the monastery: all came and went, came and went in obedience to eternal laws, and drew the blood of man into the same placid rhythm. I saw the world as a tree, a gigantic poplar, and myself as a green leaf clinging to a branch with my slender stalk. When God's wind blew, I hopped and danced, together with the entire tree.

Is he good? Or is he bad? That's the only thing I ask nowadays. And as I grow older—I'd swear this on the last crust I eat—I feel I shan't even go on asking that! Whether a man's good or bad, I'm sorry for him, for all of 'em. The sight of a man just rends my insides, even if I act as though I don't care a damn! There he is, poor devil, I think, he also eats and drinks and makes love and is frightened, whoever he is: he has his God and his devil just the same, and he'll peg out and lie as stiff as a board beneath the ground and be food for worms, just the same. Poor devil! We're all brothers! All worm-meat!

I did not know what I was going to do with my life; before anything else I wanted to find an answer, my answer, to the timeless questions, and then after that I would decide what I would become. If I did not begin by discovering what was the grand purpose of life on earth, I said to myself, how would I be able to discover the purpose of my tiny ephemeral life? And if I did not give my life a purpose, how would I be able to engage in action? I was not interested in finding what life's purpose was objectively - this, I divined, was impossible and futile - but simply what purpose I, of my own free will, could give it in accord with my spiritual and intellectual needs. Whether or not this purpose was the true one did not, at that time, have any great significance for me. The important thing was that I should find (should create) a purpose congruent with my own self, and thus, by following it, reel out my particular desires and abilities to the furthest possible limit. For then at last I would be collaborating harmoniously with the totality of the universe.

there are three kinds of men: those who make it their aim, as they say, to live their lives, eat, drink, make love, grow rich, and famous; then come those who make it their aim not to live their own lives but to concern themselves with the lives of all men – they feel that all men are one and they try to enlighten them, to love them as much as they can and do good to them; finally there are those who aim at living the life of the entire universe – everything, men, animals, trees, stars, we are all one, we are all one substance involved in the same terrible struggle. What struggle?…Turning matter into spirit.

اننى أذكر صباح يوم اكتشفت فيه شرنقة فى قشرة شجرة ، فى اللحظة التى كانت فيها الفراشة تحطم الغلاف وتتهيأ للخروج. وانتظرت فترة طويلة لكنها تأخرت ، وكنت مستعجلا وبعصبية انحنيت وأخذت أدفئها بأنفاسى. كنت أدفئها بنفاذ صبر وبدأت المعجزة تتم أمامى، بأسرع مما تتم عادة. وانفتح الغلاف وخرجت الفراشة تجر نفسها جرا. ولن أنسى مطلقا الشناعة الى شعرت بها عندئذ ، فجناحاها لم يكونا قد تفتحا بعد وراحت تحاول بكل جسدها الصغير المرتعد ان تنشرهما.وأخذت أساعدها بأنفاسى وانا منحن فوقها لكن عبثا. كان لابد لها من نضج بطئ ولابد للاجنحة من أن تنمو ببطء تحت الشمس ، أما الآن فقد فات الأوان ، لقد أجبرت أنفاسى الفراشة على الظهور، مثخنة قبل موعدها وارتجفت يائسة وبعد عدة ثوان ماتت فى راحة يدى. هذه الجثة الصغيرة هي أشد ما يثقل على ضميري، لأن اغتصاب القوانين الكبرى خطيئة مميتة. يجب ألا نستعجل ، ألا نفقد الصبر ، وأن نتبع بثقة النسق الأبدى.