402 Quotes by Nikos Kazantzakis

We are to blame if reality does not take the form we desire. Whatever we have not desired with sufficient strength, that we call nonexistent. Desire it, imbrue it with your blood, your sweat, your tears, and it will take on a body. Reality is nothing more than the chimera subjected to our desire and our suffering.

Love responsibility. Say: It is my duty, and mine alone, to save the earth. If it is not saved, then I alone am to blame.

You cannot understand how much patience I need in order not to lose my patience, so that I can withstand all this misfortune all by myself.Nikos Kazantzakis, from a letter to Galatea Kazantzaki wr. c. June 1922

He has given a warm, beloved, living body to all the abstract ideas which were shivering inside me. When he is not there, I start shivering again.

Звяр, сляп, объркан, гладен, но който не яде, срамува се да яде, и който трябва само да кимне на минаващото по улицата щастие и то с готовност ще се спре, но не му кимва, а отваря чешмата и пуска времето да тече без полза, сякаш е вода, и го пропилява, звяр, който не знае, че е звяр - това е младостта.

I lack nothing, I tell you!”“Nothing?” I asked. “Not even heaven?”He lowered his head and was silent. But after a moment:“Heaven is too high for me. The earth is good, exceptionally good–and near me!”“Nothing is nearer to us than heaven. The earth is beneath our feet and we tread upon it, but heaven is within us.

Life's true face is the skull.

Happy the youth who believes that his duty is to remake the world and bring it more in accord with virtue and justice, more in accord with his own heart. Woe to whoever commences his life without lunacy.

When you've made up your mind, no use lagging behind, go ahead and no relenting,Let your youth have free reign, it won't come again, so be bold and no repenting.