402 Quotes by Nikos Kazantzakis

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.

Leave nothing for death but a burned-out castle

My joys here are great, because they are very simple and spring from the everlasting elements: the pure air, the sun, the sea and the wheaten loaf.

How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.

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

Όλοι οι χορτοφάγοι, του αποκρίθηκα, όλοι οι ειρηνόφιλοι, ανθρωπόσοφοι, θεόσοφοι, αισθηματίες, σηκώνουν τα χεριά και φωνάζουν: Ειρήνη! Ειρήνη! Μα η ζωή ακολουθεί δικούς της νόμους, σκοτεινούς, που φαντάζουν κατώτεροι από την αρετή του ανθρώπου. Τραγικός είναι ο πόλεμος, τραγική είναι η ζωή, ο έρωτας, η ψυχή του ανθρώπου. Ζούμε μέσα στην αγωνία, την αμαρτία, την αβεβαιότητα. Μαχόμαστε ν' αρπάξουμε ό,τι μπορούμε από τα αιματερά αυτά στοιχεία και να τα κάνουμε πνέμα.

An ardent desire to go took possession of me once more. Not because I wanted to leave - I was quite all right on this Cretan coast, and felt happy and free there and I needed nothing - but because I have always been consumed with one desire; to touch and see as much as possible of the earth and the sea before I die.

Once more I realized to what an extent earthly happiness is made to the measure of man. It is not a rare bird which we must pursue at one moment in heaven, at the next in our minds. Happiness is a domestic bird found in our own courtyards.

I have one and only one wish: to withdraw from the world, to live far away in the countryside in a beautiful house, and to study and work there, all alone. I hope to realize that dream next yeat, when I will be thirty years old and will say goodbye to the world forever.