Amidst our greatest happiness someone within us cries out: “I…

Amidst our greatest happiness someone within us cries out: “I am in pain! I want to escape your happiness! I am stifling!”
Amidst our deepest despair someone within us cries out: “I do not despair! I fight on! I grasp at your head, I unsheathe myself from your body, I detach myself from the earth, I cannot be contained in brains, in names, in deeds!”

Sourced, The Saviors of God (1923)

Other Nikos Kazantzakis Quotes

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. - View Quote Details on Every word is an adamantine shell which encloses a great…
Every village has its simpleton, and if one does not exist they invent one to pass the time. - View Quote Details on Every village has its simpleton, and if one does not…
“Fire is the first and final mask of my God. We dance and weep between two enormous pyres.”
Our thoughts and our bodies flash and glitter with reflected light. Between the two pyres I stand serenely, my brain unshaken amid the vertigo, and I say:
“Time is most short and space most narrow between these two pyres, the rhythm of this life is most sluggish, and I have no time, nor a place to dance in. I cannot wait.”
Then all at once the rhythm of the earth becomes a vertigo, time disappears, the moment whirls, becomes eternity, and every point in space — insect or star or idea — turns into dance. - View Quote Details on “Fire is the first and final mask of my God…
Monarch of earth, I shall confess my secret craft:
I’ve always fought to purify wild flame to light,
and kindle whatever light I found to burst in flame. - View Quote Details on Monarch of earth, I shall confess my secret craft:
I’ve always…
A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free. - View Quote Details on A person needs a little madness, or else they never…
A slave’s soul has no worth, my brothers; it lacks strength
to tread on this great earth with gallantry and freedom.
I pity the poor slaves, they’re nought but airy mist,
a light breeze scatters them, a fragrance knocks them down;
it’s only just they crawl on the earth on hands and knees.
Today I’ll write a hymn to God and pray for this great grace. - View Quote Details on A slave’s soul has no worth, my brothers; it lacks…
God cries to my heart: “Save me!”
God cries to men, to animals, to plants, to matter: “Save me!”
Listen to your heart and follow him. Shatter your body and awake: We are all one.
Love man because you are he.
Love animals and plants because you were they, and now they follow you like faithful co-workers and slaves.
Love your body; only with it may you fight on this earth and turn matter into spirit.
Love matter. God clings to it tooth and nail, and fights. Fight with him.
Die every day. Be born every day. Deny everything you have every day. The superior virtue is not to be free but to fight for freedom.
Do not condescend to ask: “Shall we conquer? Shall we be conquered?” Fight on! - View Quote Details on God cries...">God cries to my heart: “Save me!”
God cries…
Gather together in your heart all terrors, recompose all details. Salvation is a circle; close it! - View Quote Details on Gather together in your heart all terrors, recompose all details…
I felt that human partitions — bodies, brains, and souls — were capable of being demolished, and that humanity might return again, after frightfully bloody wandering, to its primeval, divine oneness. In this condition, there is no such thing as “me”, “you”, and “he”; everything is a unity and this unity is a profound mystic intoxication in which death loses its scythe and ceases to exist. Separately, we die one by one, but all together we are immortal. Like prodigal sons, after so much hunger, thirst, and rebellion, we spread our arms and embrace our two parents: heaven and earth. - View Quote Details on I felt that human partitions — bodies, brains, and souls…
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. - View Quote Details on To cleave that sea in the gentle autumnal season, murmuring…