Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality," says one of my favorite Byzantine mystics. I did this when a child; I do it now as well in the most creative moments of my life. Nikos Kazantzakis More Quotes by Nikos Kazantzakis More Quotes From Nikos Kazantzakis As you walk, you cut open and create that river bed into which the stream of your descendants shall enter and flow. Nikos Kazantzakis cuttingflowchange Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble. Nikos Kazantzakis alivelife-islooks The human soul is heavy, clumsy, held in the mud of the flesh. Its perceptions are still coarse and brutish. It can divine nothing clearly, nothing with certainty. Nikos Kazantzakis perceptionsoulflesh 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! Nikos Kazantzakis victorymenknowledge Time is round, and it rolls quickly. Nikos Kazantzakis rounds As I watched the seagulls, I thought, That's the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust. Nikos Kazantzakis seagullrhythmgolf We're going to start with small, easy things; then, little by little we shall try our hand at the big things. And after that, after we finish the big things, we shall undertake the impossible. Nikos Kazantzakis littlestryinghands Only after I've seen the visible can I imagine what the invisible is. Nikos Kazantzakis visibleinvisibleimagine When everyone drowns and I'm the only one to escape, God is protecting me. When everyone else is saved and I'm the only one to drown, God is protecting me then too. Nikos Kazantzakis saved 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. Nikos Kazantzakis sleepheartmen Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean sea. Nikos Kazantzakis dyingseamen 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 strongbelievechildren The truth is that we all are one, that all of us together create god, that god is not man's ancestor, but his descendant. Nikos Kazantzakis truth-istogethermen The canary is like a man's soul. It sees bars around it, but instead of despairing, it sings. Nikos Kazantzakis barssoulmen Truly, everything in this world depended on time. Time ripened all. If you had time, you succeeded in working the human mud internally and turning it into spirit. Then you did not fear death. If you did not have time, you perished. Nikos Kazantzakis mudspiritworld Ah, if you could dance all that you've just said, then I'd understand. Nikos Kazantzakis danceifssaid Reach what you cannot Nikos Kazantzakis This book was not written because 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. Christ suffered pain, and since then pain has been sanctified. Temptation fought until the very last moment to lead him astray, and Temptation was defeated. Christ died on the Cross, and at that instant death was vanquished forever. Nikos Kazantzakis painfearbook The masses do not see the Sirens. They do not hear songs in the air. Blind, deaf, stooping, they pull at their oars in the hold of the earth. But the more select, the captains, harken to a Siren within them...and royally squander their lives with her. Nikos Kazantzakis sirensairsong I said only one word, brought only one message: Love. Love - nothing else. Nikos Kazantzakis messagessaidlife
