Nikos Kazandzakis cytaty

strona 7

„Kobieta jest jak świeże źródło. Pochylasz się nad nim, widzisz w nim twarz, pijesz, aż ci dech zapiera.”

„Ciało jest duszą kobiety.”

„Każdy człowiek ma jakiegoś fioła, ale zdaje się, że największym jest mniemanie, że się go nie ma wcale.”

„Wyzwolić się z jednej namiętności, aby poddać się innej, szlachetniejszej…
Ale czyż to również nie jest forma niewoli? Poświęcać się dla idei, dla rodzaju ludzkiego, dla Boga?
A może im dalej znajduje się pan, tym dłuższy sznur na szyi niewolnika?
Możemy wtedy bawić się i dokazywać na szerszej arenie i umrzeć nie naciągnąwszy sznura do końca.
Czy nie to właśnie nazywamy wolnością?”

„Ślub to zaręczyny rozwodu.”

„Ziemia i kobieta nie mogą leżeć odłogiem.”

„Nawet Bóg nie oprze się pachnącej kobiecie wychodzącej w kąpieli.”

„Prawdziwej kobiecie większą przyjemność sprawia dawanie szczęścia mężczyźnie, niż doznawanie go.”

„Kobieta to tajemnicze stworzenie, może tysiąc razy upaść i tysiąc razy podnieść się jak dziewica. Dlaczego? Po prostu nie pamięta.”

„Kto stworzył ten labirynt niepewności, tę świątynię dufności, naczynie grzechu, pole usiane tysiącem zasadzek, przedsionek piekła, kosz po brzegi napełniony chytrością, truciznę słodką jak miód, łańcuch, który wiąże śmiertelnych z doczesnością – kobietę?”

„Wrota niebios i piekieł sąsiadują z sobą i są identyczne.”

„Rzekłem do drzewa migdałowca: „Siostro, powiadaj mi o Bogu”. I migdałowiec pokrył się kwieciem.”

„Dwoista istota Chrystusa, ta ludzka, nadludzka tęsknota człowieka do Boga, zawsze była dla mnie niezbadaną tajemnicą. Największą moją udręką, źródłem wszystkich radości i smutków już od młodych lat, była ta właśnie nieustanna, bezlitosna walka ducha z ciałem, a dusza moja jest areną, na której obie te armie spotykają się i ścierają ze sobą.”

„W moim życiu największymi dobroczyńcami okazały się podróże i sny.”

„Wiara jest mozaiką złożoną z wątpliwości.”

„W ręku masz pędzel i farby. Najpierw malujesz raj, a potem do niego wchodzisz.”

„Człowiek potrzebuje odrobiny szaleństwa, inaczej nie zdobędzie się na to, by odciąć linę i być wolnym.”

„Istnieją trzy rodzaje dusz
i trzy rodzaje modlitw.
Pierwsza: Jestem łukiem w twoich dłoniach, Panie.
Napnij mnie mocno, bo spróchnieję.
Druga: Nie napinaj mnie zbyt mocno Panie,
bo pęknę.
Trzecia: Napnij mnie z całej sił.
Jeśli nawet pęknę, kogóż to obchodzi?
Wybieraj!”

„Jestem mężczyzną – to znaczy ślepcem. Jak wszyscy przede mną tak i ja zwaliłem się do dołu na łeb, na szyję. Ożeniłem się.”

“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.”

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

“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!"”

“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!”

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

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

“To cleave that sea in the gentle autumnal season, murmuring the name of each islet, is to my mind the joy most apt to transport the heart of man into paradise.”

“Speak straight and clear! I only hear that manly prayer
which like a huge fist breaks my head against the stones.”

“Her green eyes fluttered swiftly twice or thrice, then glazed,
her mouth gaped open, bleating, then her jaws hung loose
and retched up all her soul in lumps of clotting blood.”

“Look upon men and pity them. Look at yourself amid all men and pity yourself. In the obscure dusk of life we touch and fumble at each other, we ask questions, we listen, we shout for help.”

“I've fought with men and gods, I've weighed them well and found
the sea more firm than earth, the air more firm than sea,
and man's impalpable soul still yet more firm than air!”

“I subdue matter and force it to become my mind's good medium. I rejoice in plants, in animals, in man and in gods, as though they were my children. I feel all the universe nestling about me and following me as though it were my own body.”

“Only now, as we feel the onslaught behind us, do we begin dimly to apprehend why the animals fought, begot, and died; and behind them the plants; and behind these the huge reserve of inorganic forces.
We are moved by pity, gratitude, and esteem for our old comrades-in-arms. They toiled, loved, and died to open a road for our coming.
We also toil with the same delight, agony, and exaltation for the sake of Someone Else who with every courageous deed of ours proceeds one step farther.
All our struggle once more will have a purpose much greater than we, wherein our toils, our miseries, and our crimes will have become useful and holy.”

“Cursed be all those on land and sea who eat their fill,
cursed be all those who starve yet raise no hand in protest,
cursed be all the bread, the wine, the meat which day by day
descends deep in the entrails of the exploited man
and turns not into freedom's cry, the murderer's ruthless knife!”

“May he be cursed on earth who gives his trust to virtue,
that bankrupt crone who takes our life's pure gold and gives
but bad receipts for payment in the lower world.
Ah, passers-by that stroll, travelers that come and go,
all that I had, I placed on virtue, and lost the game!”

“Contend with the powers of nature, force them to the yoke of superior purpose. Free that spirit which struggles within them and longs to mingle with that spirit which struggles within you.”

“Do you believe in dreams, Uncle Simeon? I do; I believe in nothing else. One night I dreamed that invisible enemies had me tied to a dead cypress. Long red arrows were sticking into me from my head to my feet, and the blood was flowing. On my head they had placed a crown of thorns, and intertwined with the thorns were fiery letters which said: "Saint Blasphemer." I am Saint Blasphemer, Rabbi Simeon. So you'd better not ask me anything else, or I'll start my blasphemies.”

“A vehement eros runs through the Universe. It is like the ether: harder than steel, softer than air.
It cuts through and passes beyond all things, it flees and escapes.”

“In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.”

“I surrender myself to everything. I love, I feel pain, I struggle. The world seems to me wider than the mind, my heart a dark and almighty mystery.”

“Thus night with all her snares passed through the upper world
and baited all heads sweetly, fed all foolish hopes,
for night can bring to men all shrewish day denies,
wrapped as a gift in the green leaves of opiate dream.”

“"Do not die that we may not die," the dead cry out within you. "We had no time to enjoy the women we desired; be in time, sleep with them! We had no time to turn our thoughts into deeds; turn them into deeds! We had no time to grasp and to crystallize the face of our hope; make it firm!" …
But you must choose with care whom to hurl down again into the chasms of your blood, and whom you shall permit to mount once more into the light and the earth.”

“Every village has its simpleton, and if one does not exist they invent one to pass the time.”

“BLESSED BE ALL THOSE WHO HEAR AND RUSH TO FREE YOU, LORD, AND WHO SAY: "ONLY YOU AND I EXIST."
BLESSED BE ALL THOSE WHO FREE YOU AND BECOME UNITED WITH YOU, LORD, AND WHO SAY: "YOU AND I ARE ONE."
AND THRICE BLESSED BE THOSE WHO BEAR ON THEIR SHOULDERS AND DO NOT BUCKLE UNDER THIS GREAT, SUBLIME, AND TERRIFYING SECRET:
THAT EVEN THIS ONE
DOES NOT EXIST!”

“I wanted to offer a supreme model to the man who struggles; I wanted to show him that he must not fear pain, temptation or death — because all three can be conquered, all three have already been conquered.”

“I recall an endless desert of infinite and flaming matter. I am burning! I pass through immeasurable, unorganized time, completely done, despairing, crying in the wilderness.
And slowly the flame subsides, the womb of matter grows cool, the stone comes alive, breaks open, and a small green leaf uncurls into the air, trembling. It clutches the soil, steadies itself, raises its head and hands, grasps the air, the water, the light, and sucks at the Universe.”

“The heart unites whatever the mind separates, pushes on beyond the arena of necessity and transmutes the struggle into love.”

“As I watched the seagulls, I thought: "That's the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust."”

“Descend you weary-laden, descend in the dark earth,
help me to finish swiftly my dread master's shroud,
let each hem hold my pain, each corner hide a crow,
a lean, voracious crow to peck his heart out bit by bit.”