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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.

— Nikos Kazantzakis Ασκητική. Salvatores dei [Ascesis : The Saviors of God (1923)

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Philosophy

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)

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Every morning
I shall concern myself anew about the boundary
Between the love-deed-Yes and the power-deed-No
And pressing forward honor reality.

Martin Buber Power and Love (1926)

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended.

John C. Lilly The Human Biocomputer (1974)

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.