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 a… - Nikos Kazantzakis

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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.

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About Nikos Kazantzakis

Nikos Kazantzakis (18 February 1883 – 26 October 1957) was a Greek novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Native Name: Νίκος Καζαντζάκης
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Additional quotes by Nikos Kazantzakis

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?

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.

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