Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes

You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go.

My soul comes from better worlds and I have an incurable homesickness of the stars.

I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.

The only thing I know is this: I am full of wounds and still standing on my feet.

What is love? It is not simply compassion, not simply kindness. In compassion there are two: the one who suffers and the one who feels compassion. In kindness there are two: the one who gives and the one who receives. But in love there is only one; the two join, unite, become inseparable. The I and the you vanish. To love means to lose oneself in the beloved.

Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.

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

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

God changes appearances every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises. One moment he is a glass of fresh water, the next, your son bouncing on your knees or an enchanting woman, or perhaps merely a morning walk.

Be always restless, unsatisfied, unconforming. Whenever a habit becomes convenient, smash it! The greatest sin of all is satisfaction.

A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.

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.

The more devils we have within us, the more chance we have to form angels.

There is no harsher means of punishment, than to answer malice with kindness.

As long as there are flowers and children and birds in the world, have no fears: everything will be fine.

We're going to start with small, easy things; then, little by little we shall try our hand at the big things. And after that, after we finish the big things, we shall undertake the impossible.

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

The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.

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

I said only one word, brought only one message: Love. Love - nothing else.

I am a weak, ephemeral creature made of mud and dream. But I feel all the powers of the universe whirling within me.

I've stopped thinking all the time of what happened yesterday. And stopped asking what's going to happen tomorrow. What's happening today, this minute, is what I care about.

All my life one of my greatest desires has been to travel-to see and touch unknown countries, to swim in unknown seas, to circle the globe, observing new lands, seas, people, and ideas with insatiable appetite, to see everything for the first time and for the last time, casting a slow, prolonged glance, then to close my eyes and feel the riches deposit themselves inside me calmly or stormily according to their pleasure, until time passes them at last through its fine sieve, straining the quintessence out of all the joys and sorrows.

Be sure to live up to your reputation for honesty and goodness, because many souls who believe you to be honest and good have placed themselves in your hands.

Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.