Zorba Quotes

“…Man’s heart is a ditch full of blood. The loved ones who have died throw themselves down on the bank of this ditch to drink the blood and so come to life again; the dearer they are to you, the more of your blood they drink.” - The Narrator.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“I felt deep within me that 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!” - The Narrator.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Luck is blind, they say. It can’t see where it’s going and keeps running into people…and the people it knocks into we call lucky! Well, to hell with luck if it's like that, I say!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“هذه هى الحرية . أن تهوى شيئاً ما ، وأن تجمع قطع الذهب وفجأة تتغلب على هواك وتُلقى بكنزك فى الهواء، وأن تتحرر من هوى لتخضع لهوى آخر أكثر نبلاً منه ، أليس هذا شكلا آخر من العبودية ؟ أن تكرس نفسك لفكرة ، لعرقك ، لله ؟”
― نيكوس كازانتزاكيس, Zorba the Greek

“Lots of people have been afraid of the vanity of things! I´ve overcome it. Lots reflect hard; I have no need to reflect. I don´t rejoice over the good and don´t despair over the bad. If I hear that the Greeks have taken Constantinople, it´s just the same to me as if the Turks were taking Athens.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“He opened his shirt and lowered his trousers.
'Bring the light over!' he ordered.

I held the lamp close to the thin, tanned body. What with deep scars, bullet and sword marks, his body was like a collander.

'Now look at the other side!'

He turned round and showed me his back.

'Not a scratch on the back, you see. Do you understand? Now take the lamp back.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Ve tahtından indirmek istediğiniz bir despotsa söz konusu olan, önce onun içinizde kurulu tahtını ortadan kaldırın. Bir zorba özgür ve gururlu olanlara nasıl hükmedebilir, eğer onların kendi özgürlüklerinde bir zorbalık, kendi gururlarında bir utanç yoksa? Ve üstünüzden atmak istediğiniz bir yükümlülükse söz konusu olan, bu yükümlülük size dayatılmadı, onu siz seçtiniz.”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“In this way, without understanding how, I entered sleep together with Christ's passion and the nightingales' warbling, just as the soul will enter Paradise.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“There are mountains in the world,' I said, 'which are huge, immense and dotted all over with monasteries. And in those monasteries live monks in saffron robes. They stay seated, with crossed legs, for one, two, six months at a time, thinking of one thing and one thing only. One thing, do you hear? Not two - one! They don't think of women and lignite or books and lignite, as we do; they concentrate their minds on one and the same thing, and they achieve miracles. You have seen what happens when you hold a glass out to the sun and concentrate all the rays onto one spot,
Zorba? That spot soon catches fire, doesn't it? Why? Because the sun's power has not been dispersed but concentrated on that one spot. It is the same with men's minds. You do miracles, if you concentrate your mind on one thing and only one. Do you understand, Zorba?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“هذه هى الحرية . أن تهوى شيئا ما ، وأن تجمع قطع الذهب وفجأة، تتغلب على هواك وتُلقى بكنزك فى الهواء . وأن تتحرر من هوى ، لتخضع لهوى آخر أكثر نبلا ًمنه . لكن أليس هذا شكلاً آخر من العبودية ؟ أن تكرس نفسك لفكرة ، لعرقك ، لله ؟”
― نيكوس كازانتزكيس - زوربا

“Could it be that the higher one’s master stands, the rope tying one to slavery is lengthened by the same amount? In that case, if we jump and frolic in a much wider domain, we die without ever discovering its boundaries.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Question : BELOVED OSHO, I AM JUST CURIOUS. HAVE YOU READ THE BOOK ZORBA THE GREEK BY KAZANTZAKIS? I LOVE IT SO MUCH. IS NOT ZORBA EXACTLY THE WAY YOU WANT US TO BE? AT LEAST THAT IS HOW I UNDERSTAND YOUR TEACHING.

Osho : I have been Zorba the Greek for many lives. I need not read the book; that is my autobiography. And that's what I would like you to be.

Take life joyfully, take life easily, take life relaxedly, don't create unnecessary problems.

Ninety-nine percent of your problems are created by you because you take life seriously.

Seriousness is the root cause of problems. Be playful, and you will not miss anything - just be alive, be abundantly alive. Live each moment as if this is the last moment. Live it intensely; let your torch burn from both sides together. Even if it is only for one moment, that is enough.

One moment of intense totality is enough to give you the taste of God.

One moment of clarity, totality, spontaneity, and you burn like a flame. Just one moment is enough! One moment will make you eternal; you will enter from that moment into eternity.

Live this moment as totally as possible.
Let a little irrationality always be there. That makes you capable of playing, being playful; that helps you to relax.

And don't wait for next time...

Not that you will not be born again; you will be born again, but then you will forget. Then you will start again from ABC.

..next time you don't remember - that's the problem. You lose all memory of the past life.

Then again you start from ABC......

So I would not say to you to wait for the next time. Take hold of this moment!
Even if you are eighty-five you can start living. And what is there to lose when you are eighty-five? If you go barefoot on the beach in the spring, if you collect daisies - even if you die in that, nothing is wrong. To die barefoot on the beach is the right way to die. To die collecting daisies is the right way to die. Whether you are eighty-five or fifteen doesn't matter. Take hold of this moment. Be a Zorba.

You ask: "I am just curious. Have you read the book Zorba the Greek? I love it so much."

Only loving it won't help. Be it! Sometimes it happens that you love the opposite of what you are. You enjoy the opposite of what you are - because it releases fantasies in you. It gives you a vision of how you would like to be: that's the appeal of a Zorba.

But loving the book will not help. That's what people have been doing down the ages.

Be a Zorba. Remember it: loving books is not going to help, only being helps.

"I love it so much. Is not Zorba exactly the way you want us to be?"

Not exactly, because I would not like many Zorbas in the world. Not exactly, because that would be ugly and monotonous and boring. You be a Zorba in your own way - not exactly.

Never try to imitate anybody, never be an imitator; that is suicide. Then you will never be able to enjoy. You will always remain a carbon copy, you will never be the original.

And all that happens in life - truth, beauty, good, liberation, meditation, love - happens to the original, never to the carbon copy. Beware - not exactly; that is dangerous. If you simply start following Zorba and start doing things as he is doing them you will get into trouble. That's how people have done it.

Learn from Zorba, learn the secret, but never try to imitate. Learn the climate, appreciate, go into it, sympathize with it, participate with Zorba, and then go on your own. Then be yourself.”
― Osho