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"40 Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes & Sayings

      Greek     /     View profile
Born: 18 February 1883. Died: 26 October 1957 | Writer |

True teachers use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.

Bridges Collapse Create Cross
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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 realise - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been.

Astonishment Back Been Being
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My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.
Commentary Cry Entire Soul
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Beauty is merciless. You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.
Beauty Does Forgive Look
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In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.

Believe First Must Order
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Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.
Cannot Change Eyes Reality
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The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.

Darkness Enlightenment Eyes Gaze
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Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.

Always Country Creates Every
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Everything in this world has a hidden meaning.

Everything Hidden Meaning World
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There is only one woman in the world. One woman, with many faces.
Faces Many Only Woman
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I said to the almond tree, 'Friend, speak to me of God,' and the almond tree blossomed.

Almond Friend God Me
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I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.
Hope Nothing Free Fear
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A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.
Cut Dare Else Free
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The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

Desired Sufficiently Whatever Nonexistent
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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.

Able Began Breaking Console
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One of man's greatest obligations is anger.
Anger Greatest Man Obligations
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Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to unfasten your belt and look for a fight.

Alive Belt Death Fight
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When everything goes wrong, what a joy to test your soul and see if it has endurance and courage. An invisible and all-powerful enemy - some call him God, others the Devil, seem to rush upon us to destroy us; but we are not destroyed.

Call Courage Destroy Destroyed
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We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life.

Abyss Call Come Dark
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My principal anguish, and the wellspring of all my joys and sorrows, has been the incessant merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh.

Anguish Battle Been Between
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In order to mount to the Cross, the summit of sacrifice, and to God, the summit of immateriality, Christ passed through all the stages which the man who struggles passes through.

Christ Cross God Man
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Throughout my life my greatest benefactors have been my dreams and my travels; very few men, living or dead, have helped me in my struggle.

Been Dead Dreams Few
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The human soul is heavy, clumsy, held in the mud of the flesh. Its perceptions are still coarse and brutish. It can divine nothing clearly, nothing with certainty.

Certainty Clearly Clumsy Divine
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I felt deep within me that 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!

Attain Awe Deep Despairing
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Let your youth have free reign. It won't come again, so be bold, and no repenting.
Again Bold Come Free
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Tell me what you do with the food you eat, and I'll tell you who you are. Some turn their food into fat and manure, some into work and good humour, and others, I'm told, into God. So there must be three sorts of men.

Eat Fat Food God
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What a miracle life is and how alike are all souls when they send their roots down deep and meet and are one!
Alike Deep Down How
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God hates a half-devil ten times more than an arch-devil!

God Hates More Ten
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Behind each woman rises the austere, sacred and mysterious face of Aphrodite.

Austere Behind Each Face
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In religions which have lost their creative spark, the gods eventually become no more than poetic motifs or ornaments for decorating human solitude and walls.

Become Creative Decorating Eventually
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Happiness is a simple everyday miracle, like water, and we are not aware of it.

Aware Everyday Happiness Like
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My 'Report to Greco' is not an autobiography.

Autobiography Report Not
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Every man is half God, half man; he is both spirit and flesh. That is why the mystery of Christ is not simply a mystery for a particular creed: It is universal.

Both Christ Creed Every
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I fight to embrace the entire circle of human activity to the full extent of my ability.

Ability Activity Circle Embrace
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Life is a crusade in the service of God. Whether we wished to or not, we set out as crusaders to free - not the Holy Sepulcher - but that God buried in matter and in our souls.

Buried Crusade Free God
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Nothing is nearer to us than heaven. The earth is beneath our feet, and we tread upon it, but heaven is within us.

Beneath Earth Feet Heaven
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May God forgive me, but the letters of the alphabet frighten me terribly. They are sly, shameless demons - and dangerous! You open the inkwell, release them; they run off - and how will you ever get control of them again!

Again Alphabet Control Dangerous
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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?

Actually Mysteries Life Live
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Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.
Every Man Folly Greatest
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You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go.
Brush Paint You Your
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Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes & Sayings