Mona > Mona's Quotes

“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.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

“I did not know what I was going to do with my life; before anything else I wanted to find an answer, my answer, to the timeless questions, and then after that I would decide what I would become. If I did not begin by discovering what was the grand purpose of life on earth, I said to myself, how would I be able to discover the purpose of my tiny ephemeral life? And if I did not give my life a purpose, how would I be able to engage in action? I was not interested in finding what life's purpose was objectively - this, I divined, was impossible and futile - but simply what purpose I, of my own free will, could give it in accord with my spiritual and intellectual needs. Whether or not this purpose was the true one did not, at that time, have any great significance for me. The important thing was that I should find (should create) a purpose congruent with my own self, and thus, by following it, reel out my particular desires and abilities to the furthest possible limit. For then at last I would be collaborating harmoniously with the totality of the universe.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

“Every integral man has inside him, in his heart of hearts, a mystic center around which all else revolves. This mystic whirling lends unity to his thoughts and actions; it helps him find or invent the cosmic harmony. For some this center is love, for others kindness or beauty, others the thirst for knowledge or the longing for gold and power. They examine the relative value of all else and subordinate it to this central passion.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

“I an not tired, but the night is coming.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

“To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms. It's by talking nonsense that one gets to the truth! I talk nonsense, therefore I'm human”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

“It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“Right or wrong, it's very pleasant to break something from time to time.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky

“I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

“It is amazing what one ray of sunshine can do for a man!”
― Dostoyevsky, Fyodor

“إن صلاتي ليست ندبة شحاذ، ولا اعترافات عاشق، ولا حسابات متواضعة لتاجر مقايضة صغير: وهبتك فاعطني.

إن صلاتي هي تقرير من جندي إلى قائده: هذا ما فعلته اليوم.. هكذا حاربت لكي أنقذ قطاعي الخاص طوال المعركة، هذه هي المعوقات التي واجهتها.. وهكذا أفكر استعدادا لمعركة الغد.”
― نيكوس كزنتزاكس, تصوف: منقذو الآلهة

“Many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.”
― Lord Chesterfield