82 quotes
I've fought with men and gods, I've weighed them well and found
the sea more firm than earth, the air more firm than sea,
and man's impalpable soul still yet more firm than air!
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
I wanted to offer a supreme model to the man who struggles; I wanted to show him that he must not fear pain, temptation or death — because all three can be conquered, all three have already been conquered.
The Last Temptation of Christ (1955)
Joy! Joy! I did not know that all this world is so much part of me, that we are all one army, that windflowers and stars struggle to right and left of me and do not know me; but I turn to them and hail them.
The Saviors of God (1923)
I hate all virtues based on food and bloated bellies;
though food and drink are good, I'm better slaked and fed
by that inhuman flame which burns in our black bowels.
I like to name that flame which burns within me God!
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
As long as our souls remain strong, that is all that matters; as long as they don't decline. Because with the fall of certain souls in this world, the world itself will collapse. These are the pillars which support it. They are few, but enough.
Report to Greco (1965)
Descend you weary-laden, descend in the dark earth,
help me to finish swiftly my dread master's shroud,
let each hem hold my pain, each corner hide a crow,
a lean, voracious crow to peck his heart out bit by bit.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Death's dry bones glowed with light in the erotic dark
but he woke not nor felt the two warm bodies merge;
the male worm then took heart and in his wife's ear whispered:
"With one sweet kiss, dear wife, we've conquered conquering Death!"
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Outside the wind of Jehovah still beat on the door, trying to enter. There was no other sound. Not a jackal on the earth, nor a crow in the air. Every living thing cowered in fear, waiting for the Lord's anger to pass.
The Last Temptation of Christ (1955)
We are not simple people who believe in happiness; nor weaklings who crumple to the ground in distress at the first reverse; nor skeptics observing the bloody effort of marching humanity from the lofty heights of a mocking, sterile wit. Believing in the fight, though we entertain no illusions about it, we are armed against every disappointment.
Toda Raba (1934)
Love responsibility. Say: "It is my duty, and mine alone, to save the earth. If it is not saved, then I alone am to blame.
Love each man according to his contribution in the struggle. Do not seek friends; seek comrades-in-arms.
The Saviors of God (1923)
Cursed be all those on land and sea who eat their fill,
cursed be all those who starve yet raise no hand in protest,
cursed be all the bread, the wine, the meat which day by day
descends deep in the entrails of the exploited man
and turns not into freedom's cry, the murderer's ruthless knife!
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
I heard the bells from the future churches, the children playing and laughing in the schoolyards … and here was an almond tree in bloom before me: I must reach out and cut a flowering branch. For, by believing passionately in something which still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired, whatever we have not irrigated with our blood to such a degree that it becomes strong enough to stride across the somber threshold of nonexistence.
Report to Greco (1965)
May he be cursed on earth who gives his trust to virtue,
that bankrupt crone who takes our life's pure gold and gives
but bad receipts for payment in the lower world.
Ah, passers-by that stroll, travelers that come and go,
all that I had, I placed on virtue, and lost the game!
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Because of this many have cried out: The goal of ephemeral life is immortality! In the temporary living organism these two streams collide: (a) the ascent toward composition, toward life, toward immortality; (b) the descent toward decomposition, toward matter, toward death, Both streams well up from the depths of primordial essence.
The essence of our God is obscure. It ripens continuously; perhaps victory is strenghened with our every valorous deed, but perhaps even all these agonizing struggles toward deliverance and victory are inferior to the nature of divinity.
Whatever it might be, we fight on without certainty, and our virtue, uncertain of any rewards, acquires a profound nobility.
Ασκητική. Salvatores dei [Ascesis : The Saviors of God (1923)
There is only one woman in the world. One woman, with many faces.
Disputed This occurs in the film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Every perfect traveller always creates the country where he travels.
Attributed Reporter in Red China (1966)
A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.
Attributed Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006)
You have your brush, you have your colours, you paint paradise, then, in you go.
Attributed
In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.
Misattributed