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The canary is like a man's soul. It sees bars around it, but instead of despairing, it sings.

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
Sees
Instead
Around
Soul
Canary
Men
Canaries
Like
Despairing
Sings
Bars

More quotes by Nikos Kazantzakis

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As long as our souls remain strong, that is all that matters as long as they don't decline. Because with the fall of certain souls in this world, the world itself will collapse. These are the pillars which support it. They are few, but enough.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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Two equally steep and bold paths may lead to the same peak. To act as if death did not exist, or to act thinking every minute of death, is perhaps the same thing.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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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
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Overdraw me, Lord, and who cares if I break.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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Everything in this world has a hidden meaning, I thought. Men, animals, trees, stars, they are all hieroglyphics woe to anyone who begins to decipher them and guess what they mean.... When you see them, you do not understand them. You think they are really men, animals, trees, stars. It is only years later, too late, that you understand.
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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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
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As long as there are flowers and children and birds in the world, have no fears: everything will be fine.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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Beauty is merciless. You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.
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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Reach what you cannot
Nikos Kazantzakis
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Life on earth means: the sprouting of wings.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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All the political, social, and economic improvements, all the technical progress cannot have any regenerating significance, so long as our inner life remains as it is at present. The more the intelligence unveils and violates the secrets of Nature, the more the danger increases and the heart shrinks.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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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
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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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Ah, if you could dance all that you've just said, then I'd understand.
Nikos Kazantzakis
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My soul comes from better worlds and I have an incurable homesickness of the stars.
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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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