"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."
React to this quote
More by Nikos Kazantzakis
See allResonant Thoughts
"It wasn't the New World that mattered … Columbus died almost without seeing it; and not really knowing what he had discovered. It's life that matters, nothing but life — the process of discovering, th…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"Now one will inevitably raise the question: How then do we conquer self-centeredness? How do we get away fr…"
— Martin Luther King"Perry gave his usual impersonation of a man who has simultaneously been told to say 'Cheese' and shot in th…"
— Clive James"Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed" was the ninth Beatitude which a…"
— Alexander Pope"The Jews practically always backed the wrong horse. The Jews of Russia who worked for the destruction of mo…"
— Leon Trotsky"Looking round that filthy room, with raw meat lying among the refuse on the floor, and cold, clotted saucep…"
— George Orwell"Who would govern that can get along without governing? He that is fittest for it, is of all men the unwilli…"
— Thomas Carlyle
