Skip to content

Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it we do suddenly realize — sometimes with astonishment — how happy we had been.

— Nikos Kazantzakis Zorba the Greek (1946)

Another quote →

Topics

Happiness

More quotes by Nikos Kazantzakis

I know well that only words, that words alone,
like the high mountains, have no fear of age or death.

The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)

Who holds a sword is tempted, who has youth must play,
he who does not fear death on earth does not fear God.

The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)

Beauty is merciless. You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.

Report to Greco (1965)

I am a mariner of Odysseus with heart of fire but with mind ruthless and clear.

Toda Raba (1934)

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

The Last Temptation of Christ (1955)

All Nikos Kazantzakis quotes →

You may also like

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

The key to self-generated happiness (the only reliable kind) is the refusal to take oneself too seriously.

Tom Robbins High Times interview (2002)

It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.

Cary Grant Love – That’s All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About (1964)

Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy.

Spider Robinson

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Nikos Kazantzakis (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.