Nikos Kazantzakis

"A magical portal opened inside my mind and conducted me into an astonishing world. [...] Before this moment I had divined but had never known with such positiveness that the world is extremely large and that suffering and toil are the companions and fellow warriors not only of Cretan, but of every man. [...] That by means of poetry all this suffering and effort could be transformed into dream; no matter how much of the ephemeral existed, poetry could immortalize it by turning it into song."

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Source: Report to Greco. Book by Nikos Kazantzakis, transl. by P. A. Bien, Faber and Faber Limited, Naxos, Ch. 11, p. 96, 1973.

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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'.

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Nikos Kazantzakis Novelist, Playwright

"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."

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Nikos Kazantzakis Novelist, Playwright

"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."

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