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.

I hope nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.

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.

God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises.

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.

A man needs a little madness, or else... he never dares cut the rope and be free.

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

You can knock on a deaf man's door forever.

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

I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed.

Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.

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

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

Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.

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.

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!

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?

Reach what you cannot

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

You have everything but one thing: madness. A man needs a little madness or else - he never dares cut the rope and be free.

Let your youth have free reign, it won't come again, so be bold and no repenting.

Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.

What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams.

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.

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

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.

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.

My principle anguish and the source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh.

Only one woman exists in this world, one woman with countless faces.

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

Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all, in my view, is not to have one.

If I were fire, I would burn; if I were a woodcutter, I would strike. But I am a heart, and I love.

The sole way to save oneself is to save others. Or to struggle to save others -even that is sufficient.

There is only one sin god will not forgive Boss, and that is to deny a woman who is in wanting ~ Zorba

Throughout my life my greatest benefactors have been my travels and my dreams. Very few men, living or dead, have helped me in my struggles.

How could I, who loved life so intensely, have let myself be entangled for so long in that balderdash of books and paper blackened with ink!

Let people be, boss; don't open their eyes. And supposing you did, what'd they see? Their misery! Leave their eyes closed, boss, and let them go on dreaming!

The truth is that we all are one, that all of us together create god, that god is not man's ancestor, but his descendant.

So few in reality are the true necessities of man

Freedom was my first great desire. The second, which remains hidden within me to this day, tormenting me, was the desire for sanctity. Hero together with saint: such is mankind's supreme model.

Ideal 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 bridges of their own.

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.

Life's true face is the skull.

Life on earth means: the sprouting of wings.

When you've made up your mind, no use lagging behind, go ahead and no relenting, Let your youth have free reign, it won't come again, so be bold and no repenting.

Never in my life have I feared death as much as I feared that resurrection.

I knew that over and above the truth, there exists another duty which is much more important and much more human.

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.

If the soul within us does not change, Judas, the world outside us will never change. The enemy is within, the Romans are within, salvation starts from within!

Happy the youth who believes that his duty is to remake the world and bring it more in accord with virtue and justice, more in accord with his own heart. Woe to whoever commences his life without lunacy.