Source: Success! (1977), p. 284; a portion of this — "In order to succeed we must first believe that we can" — has become widely attributed to Nikos Kazantzakis on the internet, but without citation of any sources.
Context: The American system demands success, and in order to succeed we must first believe that we can. Yet our society, with its intolerance of failure and poverty, traps millions of people in positions where any kind of success seems impossible to contemplate, and in which failure itself is a kind of passive rebellion against their own misery and the social system which created it in the first place.
To succeed it is necessary to accept the world as it is and rise above it.
Reported in, C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. (1917).
“Whosoever rises above things of this world, in front of which you kneel is much stronger than you.”
ibid, p: 116
“…it is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.”
'A melancholy conclusion,' said K. 'It turns lying into a universal principle.In the Cathedral
Source: The Trial (1920), Chapter 9
Playboy interview (May 1995)
Context: In the real world, very smart people fail and mediocre people rise. Part of what makes people fail or succeed are skills that have nothing to do with IQ. Also, the idea that intelligence can be gauged by an IQ test is erroneous.
My Twisted World (2014), 19-22, UC Santa Barbara, Perspective on incelness
Source: The Story of My Life (1903), Ch. 21
Context: Ruth is so loyal and gentle-hearted, we cannot help loving her, as she stands with the reapers amid the waving corn. Her beautiful, unselfish spirit shines out like a bright star in the night of a dark and cruel age. Love like Ruth's, love which can rise above conflicting creeds and deep-seated racial prejudices, is hard to find in all the world.
