Nikos Kazantzakis

Nikos Kazantzakis

Novelist, Playwright

Nikos Kazantzakis was a Greek writer and philosopher known for his exploration of existential themes in works like 'Zorba the Greek' and 'The Last Temptation of Christ'.

Men Heart Soul Believe Eye Struggle
Born
February 18, 1883
Died
July 26, 1957
Quotes
164
Rank
#527

Quote collection

Nikos Kazantzakis quotes (page 8 of 9)

164 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Nikos Kazantzakis Novelist, Playwright
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"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."

Brother Jesus Two
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"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."

Men Warning Chance
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"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."

Believe Heart Justice
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Nikos Kazantzakis Novelist, Playwright
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"so few in reality are the true necessities of man"

Reality Men
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"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."

Men Bird Heaven
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"There is only one woman in the world. One woman, with many faces."

World Faces One Woman
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"I was ill before I fell ill."

Ill
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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."

Order Giving Point Break
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"All roads lead to the earth; the abyss leads to God. Jump!"

Earth Abyss
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"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!"

Book Long Ink
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Nikos Kazantzakis Novelist, Playwright
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"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."

Boys Thinking Two
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"What, then is our duty? It is to carefully distinguish the historic moment in which we live and to consciously assign our small energies to a specific battlefield. The more we are in phase with the current which leads the way, the more we aid man in his difficult, uncertain, danger-fraught ascent toward salvation."

Life Military War
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"I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. inscription on Kazantakis's tomb in Heraklion, Greece"

Hope Fear Inscriptions
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"Cursed be all those on land and sea who eat their fill, cursed be all those who starve yet raise no hand in protest, cursed be all the bread, the wine, the meat which day by day descends deep in the entrails of the exploited man and turns not into freedom's cry, the murderer's ruthless knife!"

Wine Men Hands
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"There's a devil inside me which cries, "You're not the son of the Carpenter, you're the son of King David! You are not a man, you are the Son of man whom Daniel prophesied." And still more: "The Son of God! And still more: God!"

Kings Son Men
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"Within this arena, which grows more stable night after day, generations work and love and hope and vanish. New generations tread on the corpses of their fathers, continue the work above the abyss and struggle to tame the dread mystery. How? By cultivating a single field, by kissing a woman, by studying a stone, an animal, an idea."

Father Struggle Kissing
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"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."

Song Heart Play
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"Overdraw me, Lord, and who cares if I break."

Who Cares Lord Break
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"Every village has its simpleton, and if one does not exist they invent one to pass the time."

Time Doe Village
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"Good Lord, how can the rich bear to die?"

Bears Rich Lord
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