Nikos Kazantzakis
10 quotes
“I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.”
“Δεν ελπίζω τίποτα, δε φοβούμαι τίποτα, είμαι λεύτερος.”
“This is what I want!”
“You gave me your curse, holy Fathers. I give you a blessing: May you be as moral and religious as I am. In response to attempts by leaders of the Greek Orthodox church to anathematize him, as quoted in God's Struggler: Religion in the Writings of Nikos Kazantzakis (1996) by Darren J. N. Middleton and Peter Bien, p. 12”
“I said to the almond tree: "Speak to me of God." And the almond tree blossomed. The Fratricides (1961), epigraph”
“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. "Odyssey of Faith" in TIME magazine”
“We, who are dying, are doing better, than they, who will live. For Crete doesn't need householders, she needs madmen like us. These madmen make Crete immortal. Freedom and Death (1956), ch. 13”
“God, what is all this talk put out by the popes? Paradise is here, my good man. God, give me no other paradise! Freedom and Death (1956), ch. 3”
“We are not simple people who believe in happiness; nor weaklings who crumple to the ground in distress at the first reverse; nor skeptics observing the bloody effort of marching humanity from the lofty heights of a mocking, sterile wit. Believing in the fight, though we entertain no illusions about it, we are armed against every disappointment. Toda Raba (1934), ch. 10”
“I am a mariner of Odysseus with heart of fire but with mind ruthless and clear. Toda Raba (1934), quoted in Kimon Friar's introduction to The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1958), p. xxvi”