Nikos Kazantzakis famous quotes

In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Faith #Believe

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

#Change #Eye #Reality

I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Freedom #Fear Nothing

By believing passionately in something that does not yet exist, we create it.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Inspirational #Believe #Doe

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.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Inspirational #Education #Teacher

God changes appearances every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises. One moment he is a glass of fresh water, the next, your son bouncing on your knees or an enchanting woman, or perhaps merely a morning walk.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Morning #Blessed #Son

A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Inspirational #Photography #Cutting

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.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Past #Looks #Astonishment

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

#Feet #Stills #Standing

As I watched the seagulls, I thought, That's the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Golf #Rhythm #Seagull

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!
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Knowledge #Men #Victory

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.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Sleep #Heart #Men

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

#Blessed #Men #Appearance

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

#Men #Sea #Dying

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

#Color #Paradise #Paint

Reach what you cannot
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

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.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Law #Today #Sin

Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Country #Travel #Journey

Life's true face is the skull.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Skulls #Faces

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

#Men #Doors #Forever

The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Inspirational #Real #Eye

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

#Reign #Youth #Repent

The struggle between God and man breaks out in everyone, together with the longing for reconciliation. Most often this struggle is unconscious and short-lived. A weak soul does not have the endurance to resist the flesh for very long. It grows heavy, becomes flesh itself, and the contest ends. But among responsible men, men who keep their eyes riveted day and night upon the Supreme Duty, the conflict between flesh and spirit breaks out mercilessly and may last until death.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Struggle #Eye #Night

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.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Life #Military #War

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.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

By believing passionately in that which doesn't exist, you create it and that which has not been sufficiently desired is what we call the non existent.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Believe

All the political, social, and economic improvements, all the technical progress cannot have any regenerating significance, so long as our inner life remains as it is at present. The more the intelligence unveils and violates the secrets of Nature, the more the danger increases and the heart shrinks.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Heart #Long #Political

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

#Dream #Laughter #Wine

The ultimate, most holy form of theory is action.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Acting #Action #Holy

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

#Men #Folly

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.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Heart #Ideas #Sunrise

I said only one word, brought only one message: Love. Love - nothing else.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Life #Messages #Said

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.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Happiness #Wine #Simple

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.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Joy #Sorrow #Battle

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?
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Writing #Mystery #Mystery Of Life

What happiness this is: to fly, skimming over the earth just as we do in our dreams! Life has become a dream. Can this be the meaning of paradise?
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Dream #Paradise #Earth

I surrender myself to everything. I love, I feel pain, I struggle. The world seems to me wider than the mind, my heart a dark and almighty mystery.
-- Nikos Kazantzakis

#Pain #Struggle #Heart