Top 200 Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes (2024 Update)

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

— Nikos Kazantzakis

2. “I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

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

— Nikos Kazantzakis

Featured in: Teacher Quotes

4. “Go as far as you can. Go further than you can!”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

5. “You do miracles if you concentrate your mind on one thing and one thing only.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

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

— Nikos Kazantzakis

7. “By believing passionately in something that does not yet exist, we create it.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

8. “My soul comes from better worlds and I have an incurable homesickness of the stars.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

9. “Everything in this world has a hidden meaning.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

10. “You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

11. “Reach what you cannot.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

12. “A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

13. “The only thing I know is this: I am full of wounds and still standing on my feet.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

14. “Die every day. Be reborn again every day.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

15. “We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

16. “Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean sea.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

17. “I am a weak, ephemeral creature made of mud and dream. But I feel all the powers of the universe whirling within me.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

18. “The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

19. “There is only one woman in the world. One woman, with many faces.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

20. “When I encounter a sunrise, a painting, a woman, or an idea that makes my heart bound like a young calf, then I know I am standing in front of happiness.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

21. “How simple and frugal a thing is happiness.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

22. “I said to the almond tree, ‘Sister, speak to me of God.’ And the almond tree blossomed.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

23. “By believing passionately in that which doesn’t exist, you create it and that which has not been sufficiently desired is what we call the non existent.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

24. “Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

Featured in: Country Quotes

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

— Nikos Kazantzakis

26. “The doors of heaven and hell are adjacent and identical.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

27. “I collect my tools: sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing, intellect. Night has fallen...”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

28. “The landscape affects the human psyche – the soul, the body and the innermost contemplations – like music. Every time you feel nature deeper you resonate better with her, finding new elements of balance and freedom...”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

29. “Ah, if you could dance all that you’ve just said, then I’d understand.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

30. “Every word is an adamantine shell which encloses a great explosive force. To discover its meaning you must let it burst inside you like a bomb and in this way liberate the soul which it imprisons.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

31. “My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

32. “A woman’s body is a dark and monstrous mystery; between her supple thighs a heavy whirlpool swirls, two rivers crash, and woe to him who slips and falls!”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

33. “As long as there are flowers and children and birds in the world, have no fears: everything will be fine.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

34. “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.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

35. “Beauty is merciless. You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

36. “When everything goes wrong, what a joy to test your soul and see if it has endurance and courage! An invisible and all-powerful enemy – some call him God, others the Devil, seem to rush upon us to destroy us; but we are not destroyed.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

37. “Be always restless, unsatisfied, unconforming. Whenever a habit becomes convenient, smash it! The greatest sin of all is satisfaction.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

38. “I know now: I do not hope for anything. I do not fear anything, I have freed myself from both the mind and the heart, I have mounted much higher, I am free .”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

39. “What is truth? What is falsehood? Whatever gives wings to men, whatever produces great works and great souls and lifts up a man’s height above the earth – that’s true. Whatever clips off man’s wings – that’s false.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

40. “Man is able, and has the duty, to reach the furthest point on the road he has chosen. Only by means of hope can we attain what is beyond hope.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

41. “I possess no weapon but love. With that I have come to do battle. Help me!”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

42. “No wide road leads to God.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

43. “God changes appearances every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises. One moment he is a glass of fresh water, the next, your son bouncing on your knees or an enchanting woman, or perhaps merely a morning walk.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

44. “Lions and Lambs, love and force, light and fire, good and evil: all things climb the same mountain, the mountain of God.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

45. “How does the light of a star set out and plunge into black eternity in its immortal course? The star dies, but the light never dies; such also is the cry of freedom.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

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

— Nikos Kazantzakis

47. “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

48. “Discipline is the highest of all virtues. Only so may strength and desire be counterbalanced and the endeavors of man bear fruit.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

49. “What happiness this is: to fly, skimming over the earth just as we do in our dreams! Life has become a dream. Can this be the meaning of paradise?”

— Nikos Kazantzakis

50. “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