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

Nikos Kazantzakis

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Nikos Kazantzakis
Age: 74 †
Born: 1883
Born: February 18
Died: 1957
Died: October 26
Journalist
Novelist
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
Politician
Screenwriter
Translator
Writer
Heraclion
Nicos Kazantzakes
Men
Fruit
Bears
Discipline
Highest
Strength
Endeavors
Virtue
Virtues
Desire
Endeavor
May
Bear

More quotes by Nikos Kazantzakis

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There's a devil inside me which cries, You're not the son of the Carpenter, you're the son of King David! You are not a man, you are the Son of man whom Daniel prophesied. And still more: The Son of God! And still more: God!
Nikos Kazantzakis
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Be always restless, unsatisfied, unconforming. Whenever a habit becomes convenient, smash it! The greatest sin of all is satisfaction.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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Free yourself from one passion to be dominated by another and nobler one. But is not that, too, a form of slavery? To sacrifice oneself to an idea, to a race, to God? Or does it mean that the higher the model the longer the longer the tether of our slavery?
Nikos Kazantzakis
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God is action, complete with mistakes, fumblings, persistence, agony. God is not the power that has found eternal equilibrium, but the power that is forever breaking every equilibrium, forever searching for a higher one.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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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
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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
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Every village has its simpleton, and if one does not exist they invent one to pass the time.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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The doors of heaven and hell are adjacent and identical.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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No! No! Never acknowledge the limitations of man. Smash all boundaries! Deny whatever your eyes see. Die every moment, but say: Death does not exist.'
Nikos Kazantzakis
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The more devils we have within us, the more chance we have to form angels.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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Overdraw me, Lord, and who cares if I break.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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Good Lord, how can the rich bear to die?
Nikos Kazantzakis
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I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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May he be cursed on earth who gives his trust to virtue, that bankrupt crone who takes our life's pure gold and gives but bad receipts for payment in the lower world. Ah, passers-by that stroll, travelers that come and go, all that I had, I placed on virtue, and lost the game!
Nikos Kazantzakis
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Today, any action anywhere on earth has an immediate repercussion on all five continents. News of a victory of the Eastern armies in Morocco or Shanghai travels instantly, thanks to modern means of communication, to all Eastern peoples and fills them with enthusiasm and faith. This phenomenon is, of course, unprecedented in the history of man.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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Whoever climbed the Lord's mountain had to possess clean hands and an innocent heart otherwise the Summit would kill him. Today the doorway is deserted. Soiled hands and sinful hearts are able to pass by without fear, for the Summit kills no longer.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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Only after I've seen the visible can I imagine what the invisible is.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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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
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What, then is our duty? It is to carefully distinguish the historic moment in which we live and to consciously assign our small energies to a specific battlefield. The more we are in phase with the current which leads the way, the more we aid man in his difficult, uncertain, danger-fraught ascent toward salvation.
Nikos Kazantzakis