402 Quotes by Nikos Kazantzakis

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.

I said to the almond tree, ‘Sister, speak to me of God.’ And the almond tree blossomed.

Whoever climbed the Lord’s mountain had to possess clean hands and an innocent heart; otherwise the Summit would kill him. Today the doorway is deserted. Soiled hands and sinful hearts are able to pass by without fear, for the Summit kills no longer.

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.

Oh, yes. Wife. Children. Home. Everything. The full catastrophe.

The landscape affects the human psyche – the soul, the body and the innermost contemplations – like music. Every time you feel nature deeper you resonate better with her, finding new elements of balance and freedom...

I would fill my soul with flesh, my flesh with soul.

It doesn’t matter whether or not you have a head, you must wear the right sort of hat.

What is truth? What is falsehood? Whatever gives wings to men, whatever produces great works and great souls and lifts up a man’s height above the earth – that’s true. Whatever clips off man’s wings – that’s false.