Quotes from Zorba the Greek

“I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition. To live far from men, not to need them and yet to love them. To have the stars above, the land to your left and the sea to your right and to realize of a sudden that in your heart, life has accomplished its final miracle: it has become a fairy tale.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“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, quote from Zorba the Greek

“You can knock on a deaf man's door forever.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. ‘What, grandfather!’ I exclaimed. ‘Planting an almond tree?’ And he, bent as he was, turned around and said: ‘My son, I carry on as if I should never die.’ I replied: ‘And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.’

Which of us was right, boss?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“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, quote from Zorba the Greek

“إن لكل انسان حماقاته ، لكن الحماقة الكبرى في رأيي هي ألا يكون للإنسان حماقات.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean sea.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“كلّ ماينبغي لكي تشعر بأن هذه هي السعادة، هو أن يكون لك قلب راض ونفس قانعة”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“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, quote from Zorba the Greek

“All those who actually live the mysteries of life haven't the time to write, and all those who have the time don't live them! D'you see?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“You have everything but one thing: madness. A man needs a little madness or else - he never dares cut the rope and be free.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“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, quote from Zorba the Greek

“ما أمتع الحزن الذي يملأ النفس من مرأى المطر الهادئ المتصل! إن جميع الذكريات المريرة، الراسبة في أعماق النقس تطفو حينئذ فوق السطح، ذكرى الاصدقاء الذين ذهبوا، والابتسامات الحلوة التي ذبلت، والآمال العزيزة التي فقدت اجنحتها”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“إن في جسدك روحاً، ويجب أن تشفق عليها، أعطها شيئاً لتأكله أيها الرئيس، فإذا لم تطعمها تركتك في نصف الطريق”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“تخلصت من الوطن ، تخلصت من الكاهن ، تخلصت من الماء . إنني أغربل نفسي . كلما تقدم بي العمر ، غربلت نفسي أكثر . إنني أتطهر ، كيف أقول لك ؟ إنني أتحرر ، إنني أصبح إِنساناً”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“No, you're not free," he said. "The string you're tied to is perhaps no longer than other people's. That's all. You're on a long piece of string, boss; you come and go, and think you're free, but you never cut the string in two. And when people don't cut that string . . ."
"I'll cut it some day!" I said defiantly, because Zorba's words had touched an open wound in me and hurt.
"It's difficult, boss, very difficult. You need a touch of folly to do that; folly, d'you see? You have to risk everything! But you've got such a strong head, it'll always get the better of you. A man's head is like a grocer; it keeps accounts: I've paid so much and earned so much and that means a profit of this much or a loss of that much! The head's a careful little shopkeeper; it never risks all it has, always keeps something in reserve. It never breaks the string. Ah no! It hangs on tight to it, the bastard! If the string slips out of its grasp, the head, poor devil, is lost, finished! But if a man doesn't break the string, tell me, what flavor is left in life? The flavor of camomile, weak camomile tea! Nothing like rum-that makes you see life inside out!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“يا لمرارة الافتراق ببطء عن الأحباء! من الأفضل الانقطاع عنهم مرّةً واحدة، والعودة إلى الوحدة.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“إن الإله الرحيم كمل ترى ، لا تستطيع طبقات السماء السبع وطبقات الأرض السبع أن تسعه .
لكن قلب الإنسان يسعه . إذن احذر يا ألكسيس ، من أن تجرح ذات يوم قلب الإنسان”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“شقيٌّ من ليس في داخله منبع السعادة
شقي من يريد أن يعجب الآخرين !
شقي من لا يحس أن هذه الحياة والحياة الأخرى إن هما إلا حياة واحدة”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“When shall I at last retire into solitude alone, without companions, without joy and without sorrow, with only the sacred certainty that all is a dream? When, in my rags—without desires—shall I retire contented into the mountains? When, seeing that my body is merely sickness and crime, age and death, shall I—free, fearless, and blissful—retire to the forest? When? When, oh when?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“دع الناس مطمئنين, أيها الرئيس لاتفتح أعينهم, فما الذي سيرون؟ بؤسهم! دعهم إذن مستمرين في أحلامهم.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“هناك أسوأ ممن هو أصم , وهو الذي لا يريد أن يسمع”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“قليل من الأشياء, وكثيرٌ من القلب.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

“كم هي مؤلمة ساعة الفراق البطيئة، خاصة فراق الأصدقاء العظام. فالأفضل الانقطاع دفعة واحدة، والعودة إلى الوحدة”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, quote from Zorba the Greek

About the author

Popular quotes

“Quantum physicists discovered that physical atoms are made up of vortices of energy that are constantly spinning and vibrating; each atom is like a wobbly spinning top that radiates energy. Because each atom has its own specific energy signature (wobble), assemblies of atoms (molecules) collectively radiate their own identifying energy patterns. So every material structure in the universe, including you and me, radiates a unique energy signature. If it were theoretically possible to observe the composition of an actual atom with a microscope, what would we see? Imagine a swirling dust devil cutting across the desert’s floor. Now remove the sand and dirt from the funnel cloud. What you have left is an invisible, tornado-like vortex. A number of infinitesimally small, dust devil–like energy vortices called quarks and photons collectively make up the structure of the atom. From far away, the atom would likely appear as a blurry sphere. As its structure came nearer to focus, the atom would become less clear and less distinct. As the surface of the atom drew near, it would disappear. You would see nothing. In fact, as you focused through the entire structure of the atom, all you would observe is a physical void. The atom has no physical structure—the emperor has no clothes! Remember the atomic models you studied in school, the ones with marbles and ball bearings going around like the solar system? Let’s put that picture beside the “physical” structure of the atom discovered by quantum physicists. No, there has not been a printing mistake; atoms are made out of invisible energy not tangible matter! So in our world, material substance (matter) appears out of thin air. Kind of weird, when you think about it. Here you are holding this physical book in your hands. Yet if you were to focus on the book’s material substance with an atomic microscope, you would see that you are holding nothing. As it turns out, we undergraduate biology majors were right about one thing—the quantum universe is mind-bending. Let’s look more closely at the “now you see it, now you don’t” nature of quantum physics. Matter can simultaneously be defined as a solid (particle) and as an immaterial force field (wave). When scientists study the physical properties of atoms, such as mass and weight, they look and act like physical matter. However, when the same atoms are described in terms of voltage potentials and wavelengths, they exhibit the qualities and properties of energy (waves). (Hackermüller, et al, 2003; Chapman, et al, 1995; Pool 1995) The fact that energy and matter are one and the same is precisely what Einstein recognized when he concluded that E = mc2. Simply stated, this equation reveals that energy (E) = matter (m, mass) multiplied by the speed of light squared (c2). Einstein revealed that we do not live in a universe with discrete, physical objects separated by dead space. The Universe is one indivisible, dynamic whole in which energy and matter are so deeply entangled it is impossible to consider them as independent elements.”
― Bruce H. Lipton, quote from The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles

“you’re wrong, you will suffer for it. If you’re right, you will find happiness. You have to be the one to decide. “Who are you to know?” It’s your future at stake. You have to know. Freedom comes only from seeing the ignorance of your critics and discovering the emptiness of their virtue. — David Seabury”
― quote from How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

“It was the equivalent of asking a little girl not to scream the first time she was personally introduced to
Hannah Montana.”
― J.A. Saare, quote from Dead, Undead, or Somewhere in Between

“And what I think is that
when you’re completely alone
and deep inside yourself
with feelings no one else can understand,
there really aren’t a hundred places to go.

It’s like if I woke up one day
and looked outside
and saw purple trees
and red grass and green dogs,
is there anyone I could tell who would understand?

No.
There’d be no one.
It’s exactly like that.

He saw purple trees
and red grass and green dogs
while no one else did.
 
And maybe,
he just got tired
of seeing them.”
― Lisa Schroeder, quote from Chasing Brooklyn

“Over the proof that someone can be both certain and wrong. In my mind, I began to reserve judgment even on the revelations of the goddess. I cultivated the word probably. Was the temple swept? Yes, probably. But perhaps not. The goddess was eternal and just and immune to all lies, probably. We were her beloved and chosen, probably. But perhaps we weren’t. I became very aware of the division between truth and certainty. I began to doubt. And once I was on that path, there was no hiding it.”
― Daniel Abraham, quote from The King's Blood

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.