“This book is not a biography; it is the confession of every man who struggles.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ, 1955, tr. Peter A. Bien, Prologue

About Nikos Kazantzakis

1883 – 1957

Greek writer, author of "Zorba the Greek".

“All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.”

“God, what is all this talk put out by the popes? Paradise is here, my good man. God, give me no other paradise!”

“I said to the almond tree: "Speak to me of God." And the almond tree blossomed.”

“The wisest man may be wiser to-day than he was yesterday, and to-morrow than he is to-day.”

“Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.”

“It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things.”

“For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing.”

“The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.”

“It was subtle of God to learn Greek when he wished to become an author—and not to learn it better.”