R. B. > R.'s Quotes

“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, 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, 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, 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, Zorba the Greek

“I lived six months with her. Since that day - God be my witness! - 1 need fear nothing.
Nothing, I say. Nothing, except one thing: that the devil, or God, wipe out those six
months from my memory.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“What happened to the crow, Zorba?"
"Well, you see, he used to walk respectably, properly - well, like a crow. But one day he got it into his head to try and strut about like a pigeon. And from that time the poor fellow couldn't for the life of him recall his own way of walking. He was all mixed up, don't you see? He just hobbled about.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“The unfailing rhythm of the seasons, the ever-turning wheel of life, the four facets of the earth which are lit in turn by the sun, the passing of life--all these filled me once more with a feeling of oppression. Once more there sounded within me, together with the cranes' cry, the terrible warning that there is only one life for all men, that there is no other, and that all that can be enjoyed must be enjoyed here. In eternity no other chance will be given to us.

A mind hearing this pitiless warning--a warning which, at the same time, is so compassionate--would decide to conquer its weakness and meanness, its laziness and vain hopes and cling with all its power to every second which flies away forever.

Great examples come to your mind and you see clearly that you are a lost soul, your life is being frittered away on petty pleasures and pains and trifling talk. "Shame! Shame!" you cry, and bite your lips.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“An ardent desire to go took possession of me once more. Not because I wanted to leave - I was quite all right on this Cretan coast, and felt happy and free there and I needed nothing - but because I have always been consumed with one desire; to touch and see as much as possible of the earth and the sea before I die.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“...I spent the whole morning coiled up in front of the fire, with my hands over it, eating nothing, motionless, just listening to the first rain of the season, softly falling. I was thinking of nothing. Rolled up in a ball, like a mole in damp soil, my brain was resting. I could hear the slight movements, murmurings and nibblings of the earth, and the rain falling and the seeds swelling. I could feel the sky and the earth copulating as in primitive times when they mated like a man and woman and had children. I could hear the sea before me, all along the shore, roaring like a wild beast and lapping with its tongue to slake its thirst.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“He dejado de acordarme de lo que ayer ocurrió y de preguntarme qué ocurrirá mañana. Lo que ocurre hoy, en el minuto presente, es lo que me interesa. Yo digo: ¿Qué haces Zorba en este momento? Duermo. ¡Pues, entonces, duérmete bien! ¿Qué haces en este momento, Zorba? Trabajo. ¡Pues entonces, trabaja bien! ¿Y ahora qué haces, Zorba? Estoy besando a una mujer. ¡Pues entonces, bésala bien, Zorba, olvídate de todo, que en el mundo sólo existís ella y tú, hala!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“What a miracle life is and how alike are all souls when they send their roots down deep and meet and are one!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Is he good? Or is he bad? That's the only thing I ask nowadays. And as I grow older—I'd swear this on the last crust I eat—I feel I shan't even go on asking that! Whether a man's good or bad, I'm sorry for him, for all of 'em. The sight of a man just rends my insides, even if I act as though I don't care a damn! There he is, poor devil, I think, he also eats and drinks and makes love and is frightened, whoever he is: he has his God and his devil just the same, and he'll peg out and lie as stiff as a board beneath the ground and be food for worms, just the same. Poor devil! We're all brothers! All worm-meat!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“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, Zorba the Greek

“It was certainly not this mummified and outrageously painted old woman he was seeing before him, but the entire "female species," as it was his custom to call women. The individual disappeared, the features were obliterated, whether young or senile, beautiful or ugly - those were mere unimportant variations. Behind each woman rises the austere, sacred and mysterious face of Aphrodite.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“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.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“there are three kinds of men: those who make it their aim, as they say, to live their lives, eat, drink, make love, grow rich, and famous; then come those who make it their aim not to live their own lives but to concern themselves with the lives of all men – they feel that all men are one and they try to enlighten them, to love them as much as they can and do good to them; finally there are those who aim at living the life of the entire universe – everything, men, animals, trees, stars, we are all one, we are all one substance involved in the same terrible struggle. What struggle?…Turning matter into spirit.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“His words drifted across Death's scythe and split tidily into two ribbons of consonants and vowels.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic

“She was the Goddess Who Must Not Be Named; those who sought her never found her, yet she was known to come to the aid of those in greatest need. And, then again, sometimes she didn't. She was like that.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

“So I resolved to remain alive in an unofficial capacity, which of course annoys them all immensely.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic

“You’re hearing things said the voice in Rincewind’s head.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

“My name is immaterial,” she said. “That’s a pretty name,” said Rincewind.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

“Cuando pienso que puedo morir sin haber visto ni una centésima parte de lo que existe, me siento...”
― Terry Pratchett, El color de la magia

“He stopped and stared intently at Rincewind. "Every night I come out here and look down." he finished, "and I never jump. Courage is hard to come by, here on the Edge.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

“All I know is that once I was not, and then you thought me, and then I was. Therefore, of course, I am yours to command.”
― terry pratchett, The Color of Magic

“It was octarine, the colour of magic. It was alive and glowing and vibrant and it was the undisputed pigment of the imagination, because wherever it appeared it was a sign that mere matter was a servant of the powers of the magical mind. It was enchantment itself.
But Rincewind always thought it looked a sort of greenish-purple.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic

“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.”
― Terry Pratchett, Diggers

“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”
― Terry Pratchett, Jingo

“Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.”
― Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent

“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”
― Terry Pratchett