Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes

While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it we do suddenly realize — sometimes with astonishment — how happy we had been.

Her green eyes fluttered swiftly twice or thrice, then glazed,
her mouth gaped open, bleating, then her jaws hung loose
and retched up all her soul in lumps of clotting blood.

...I spent the whole morning coiled up in front of the fire, with my hands over it, eating nothing, motionless, just listening to the first rain of the season, softly falling. I was thinking of nothing. Rolled up in a ball, like a mole in damp soil, my brain was resting. I could hear the slight movements, murmurings and nibblings of the earth, and the rain falling and the seeds swelling. I could feel the sky and the earth copulating as in primitive times when they mated like a man and woman and had children. I could hear the sea before me, all along the shore, roaring like a wild beast and lapping with its tongue to slake its thirst.

Sodom and Gomorrah reclined along the riverbank like two whores kissing each other. Men copulated with other men, women with other women, men with mares, women with bulls. They ate and overate from the Tree of Life; they ate and overate from the Tree of Knowledge. Smashing their sacred statues, they saw that they were filled with air. Coming very, very close to God, they said, "This God is not the father of Fear, he is the son of Fear," and they lost their fear. On the four gates to the city they wrote in large yellow letters, THERE IS NO GOD HERE. What does There is no God mean? It means there is no bridle on our instincts, no reward for good or punishment for evil, no virtue, shame, or justice — that we are wolves and she-wolves in heat.

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؟

Never acknowledge the limitations of man. Smash all boundaries! Deny whatever your eyes see. Die every moment, but say: "Death does not exist."

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.

يارب ,, لا تنزل على الانسان كل ما يستطيع تحمله

Love’s feet are always pleased to step on ashes.

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

قليل من الأشياء, وكثيرٌ من القلب.

Доста време седяхме около мангала и мълчахме и двамата. Отново се уверих колко просто и скромно нещо е щастието - чаша вино, един кестен, едно нищо и никакво мангалче, шумът на морето, нищо друго. Нужно е само, за да почувстваш, че всички тези неща са щастието, едно просто и скромно сърце.

We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life. As soon as we are born the return begins, at once the setting forth and the coming back; we die in every moment. Because of this many have cried out: The goal of life is death! But as soon as we are born we begin the struggle to create, to compose, to turn matter into life; we are born in every moment. Because of this many have cried out: The goal of ephemeral life is immortality! In the temporary living organism these two streams collide … both opposing forces are holy. It is our duty, therefore, to grasp that vision which can embrace and harmonize these two enormous, timeless, and indestructible forces, and with this vision to modulate our thinking and our action.

إن واجبك و أنت تقدم خدمتك التطوعية لبني جنسك هو أن تشعر في داخلك بكل الأسلاف. واجبك الثاني هو أن تضيء انطلاقتهم و ان تواصل عملهم. واجبك الثالث هو ان تنقل الى ابنك الواجب الاكبر وهو ان يتجاوزك

"كنتُ مارَّاً ذات يومٍ من قرية صغيرة. كان ثمة جدٌّ هرم في التسعين يغرس شجرة لوز فقلت له: "إيه أيها الأب الصغير، أتزرع شجرة لوز؟" فالتفت إلي وهو محني كما كان وقال: "إني اتصرف يا بني وأكني لن أموتَ أبداً" فأجبته: "وأنا أتصرف وكأني سأموت كل لحظة". من كان المحق منا أيها الرئيس؟"