Nikos Kazantzakis

“Behind each woman rises the austere, sacred and mysterious face of Aphrodite.”

“How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.”

“Let your youth have free reign. It won't come again, so be bold, and no repenting.”

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

“I should learn to run, to wrestle, to swim, to ride horses, to row, to drive a car, to fire a rifle. I should fill my soul with flesh. I should fill my flesh with soul. In fact, I should reconcile at last within me the two internal antagonists.”

“Luck is blind, they say. It can’t see where it’s going and keeps running into people…and the people it knocks into we call lucky! Well, to hell with luck if it's like that, I say!”

“If a woman sleeps alone it puts a shame on all men. God has a very big heart, but there is one sin He will not forgive. If a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go.”

“What is love?It's not empathy, nor kindness.Empathy takes two, the one who hurts and the one who empathizes.Kindness takes two, the one who gives and the one who takes.But love takes just one.The two get together into one.They don't separate.The "I" and the "you" disappear.I LOVE MEANS I DISAPPEAR..”

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

“My 'Report to Greco' is not an autobiography.”

“I lack nothing, I tell you!”“Nothing?” I asked. “Not even heaven?”He lowered his head and was silent. But after a moment:“Heaven is too high for me. The earth is good, exceptionally good–and near me!”“Nothing is nearer to us than heaven. The earth is beneath our feet and we tread upon it, but heaven is within us.”

“May God forgive me, but the letters of the alphabet frighten me terribly. They are sly, shameless demons - and dangerous! You open the inkwell, release them; they run off - and how will you ever get control of them again!”

“I felt deep within me that the highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge or Virtue or Goodness or Victory but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!”

“Every man is half God, half man; he is both spirit and flesh. That is why the mystery of Christ is not simply a mystery for a particular creed: It is universal.”

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

“Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all, in my view, is not to have one.”

“Nothing is nearer to us than heaven. The earth is beneath our feet, and we tread upon it, but heaven is within us.”

“הייתי מקפיד על אילוף מושלם של חמשת חושי, ואף על אימון כל גופי כולו, למען ידע ליהנות ולהרגיש ולהבין.”

“מתי תיפתחנה זרועותינו לחבק את הכול – את האבנים, את הגשם, את הפרחים, ואת בני־האדם?”

“אישה אמיתית נהנית יותר מן העונג שהיא נותנת לגבר מאשר מן העונג שהיא מקבלת.”