“In religions which have lost their creative spark, the gods eventually become no more than poetic motifs or ornaments for decorating human solitude and walls.”

—  Nikos Kazantzakis , book Zorba the Greek

Source: Zorba the Greek (1946), Ch. 12

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In religions which have lost their creative spark, the gods eventually become no more than poetic motifs or ornaments f…" by Nikos Kazantzakis?
Nikos Kazantzakis photo
Nikos Kazantzakis 222
Greek writer 1883–1957

Related quotes

William Wordsworth photo

“Pictures deface walls more often than they decorate them.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

This is only a slightly misquoted version of "Pictures deface walls oftener than they decorate them", written by Frank Lloyd Wright in the magazine Architectural Record in March 1908.
Misattributed

Frank Lloyd Wright photo

“Pictures deface walls oftener than they decorate them.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

"In the Cause of Architecture", in The Architectural Record (March 1908)

Henry Adams photo

“The thirteenth century knew more about religion and decoration than the twentieth century will ever learn.”

Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist

Mont Saint Michel and Chartres (1904)

Muhammad al-Taqi photo

“Modesty is the decoration of poverty, thanks-giving is the decoration of affluence and wealth. Patience and endurance are the ornaments and decorations of calamities and distress. Humility is the decoration of lineage, and eloquence is the decoration of speech. Committing to memory is the decoration of tradition (hadīth), and bowing the shoulders is the decoration of knowledge. Decency and good morale is the decoration of the mind, and a smiling face is the decoration of munifence and generiosity. Not boasting of doing favours is the decoration of good deeds, and humility is the decoration of service. Spending less is the decoration of contentment, and abondoning the meaningless and unnecessary things is the decoration of abstention and fear of God.”

Muhammad al-Taqi (811–835) ninth of the Twelve Imams of Twelver Shi'ism

al-Shahid al-Tustari, Ihqaqul-Haq, vol.12, p. 434
General

Frank Lloyd Wright photo

“As melody is in music ornament is in architecture revelation of the poetic-principle, with character and significance.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

A Testament (1957)

“Friction makes sparks and sparks start creative conflagrations.”

Leo Burnett (1891–1971) American advertising executive

Quote 93
Leo Burnett Worldwide

Adrienne Rich photo

“Poetries are no more pure and simple than human histories are pure and simple. And there are colonised poetics and resilient poetics, transmissions across frontiers not easily traced.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

"Legislators of the world" in The Guardian (18 November 2006) http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1950812,00.html
Context: I'm both a poet and one of the "everybodies" of my country. I live with manipulated fear, ignorance, cultural confusion and social antagonism huddling together on the faultline of an empire. I hope never to idealise poetry — it has suffered enough from that. Poetry is not a healing lotion, an emotional massage, a kind of linguistic aromatherapy. Neither is it a blueprint, nor an instruction manual, nor a billboard. There is no universal Poetry, anyway, only poetries and poetics, and the streaming, intertwining histories to which they belong. There is room, indeed necessity, for both Neruda and César Valléjo, for Pier Paolo Pasolini and Alfonsina Storni, for both Ezra Pound and Nelly Sachs. Poetries are no more pure and simple than human histories are pure and simple. And there are colonised poetics and resilient poetics, transmissions across frontiers not easily traced.

Alice Walker photo

“And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist
Aldous Huxley photo

“The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Proper Studies (1927)

Al-Tabari photo

“By God, our religion (din) from which we have departed is better and more correct than that which these people follow. Their religion does not stop them from shedding blood, terrifying the roads, and seizing properties.' And they returned to their former religion.”

Al-Tabari (839–923) influential Persian scholar, historian and exegete of the Qur'an

Source: Tabari 17:187

Related topics