The masses do not see the Sirens. They do not hear songs in the air. Blind, deaf, stooping, they pull at their oars in the hold of the earth. But the more select, the captains, harken to a Siren within them... and royally squander their lives with her.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the distinction between the masses and those who pursue deeper, often elusive desires in life.
Nikos Kazantzakis contrasts the general population, who are unaware of the deeper callings and desires within themselves, with the enlightened few who recognize and heed their inner 'Siren.' The Sirens symbolize profound temptations or aspirations that can lead to both profound fulfillment and the risk of wasting one's life on elusive pursuits. This quote serves as a meditation on awareness, ambition, and the consequences of pursuing one's passions.
In practice
In a motivational speech about following one's passions.
A weak soul does not have the endurance to resist the flesh for very long. It grows heavy, becomes flesh itself, and the contest ends. But among responsible men, men who keep their eyes riveted day and night upon the Supreme Duty, the conflict between flesh and spirit breaks out mercilessly and may last until death.
This, I thought, is how great visionaries and poets see everything- as if for the first time. Each morning they see a new world before their eyes; they do not really see it, they create it.
What happiness this is: to fly, skimming over the earth just as we do in our dreams! Life has become a dream. Can this be the meaning of paradise?
I collect my tools: sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing, intellect. Night has fallen.
The dual substance of Christ - the yearning, so human, so superhuman, of man to attain God. [...] has always been a deep inscrutable mystery to me. [...] My principle anguish and source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh. [...] And my soul is the arena where these two armies have clashed and met.
I fight to embrace the entire circle of human activity to the full extent of my ability.
Sincere Christians can disagree about the details of Scripture and theology - absolutely.
In the very early days of Wham! the attention felt great, but I do wonder how much freedom I gave away by trying to become something I wasn't.
I think we live in a culture that is actually hedging all of it towards comfort and immediacy, things that scare me. All the things that they sell us as a way of life scare me.
Far from being the smartest possible biological species, we are probably better thought of as the stupidest possible biological species capable of starting a technological civilization - a niche we filled because we got there first, not because we are in any sense optimally adapted to it.
Sometimes breaking the rules is extending the rules.
I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.