Nikos Kazantzakis: Trending quotes (page 10)

“Behind all appearances, I divine a struggling essence. I want to merge with it.
I feel that behind appearances this struggling essence is also striving to merge with my heart. But the body stands between us and separates us. The mind stands between us and separates us.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book The Saviors of God

The Saviors of God (1923)

Feeling , Appearance , Heart

“I heard the bells from the future churches, the children playing and laughing in the schoolyards … and here was an almond tree in bloom before me: I must reach out and cut a flowering branch. For, by believing passionately in something which still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired, whatever we have not irrigated with our blood to such a degree that it becomes strong enough to stride across the somber threshold of nonexistence.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book Report to Greco

Source: Report to Greco (1965), p. 434; in a few publications since 2008 part of this has been misattributed to Franz Kafka: "By believing passionately in something which still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired."

Children , Flowers , Tree , Strong

“Never acknowledge the limitations of man. Smash all boundaries! Deny whatever your eyes see. Die every moment, but say: "Death does not exist."”

Nikos Kazantzakis book The Saviors of God

The Saviors of God (1923)

Death

“Thus did the Holy Harlots unhinge the brains of man,
and when they met and clashed with the pure Mountain Maidens,
they raised their white arms high, their armpits smelled of musk,
and, as the rites decreed, both fought their verbal war:
"God swoops from mountain peeks to eat and play on earth;
we are his food and drink and even his sacred toys —
and learn, O sterile maids, we are his soft, sweet mates.
Let her now leave who fears to merge with her dread God!"
The scornful savage mouth of Krino flashed reply:
"We will not leave! We guard the innocent soul of man!
God is a spirit with pure white wings, a soul that sails,
light, disembodied, deep in our thoughts, without embrace.
It's we who keep the world in bloom with virgin souls!"”

Nikos Kazantzakis

From the Bull Ritual, Book VI, line 197
The Odyssey : A Modern Sequel (1938)

God , War , World , Fear

“I hate all virtues based on food and bloated bellies;
though food and drink are good, I'm better slaked and fed
by that inhuman flame which burns in our black bowels.
I like to name that flame which burns within me God!”

Nikos Kazantzakis

Odysseus, Book XI, line 840
The Odyssey : A Modern Sequel (1938)

God , Hate , Food , Drink

“If you love me, be patient. Look at the trees. Are they in a hurry to ripen their fruit?”

Nikos Kazantzakis book The Last Temptation of Christ

The Last Temptation of Christ (1951)

Love , Tree

“You gave me your curse, holy Fathers. I give you a blessing: May you be as moral and religious as I am.”

Nikos Kazantzakis

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