What a miracle life is and how alike are all souls when they send their roots down deep and meet and are one!
Interpretation
Life is a miraculous experience that connects all souls deeply.
In this quote, Kazantzakis emphasizes the beauty of life and the fundamental interconnectedness of all human beings. He suggests that when individuals root themselves deeply in their experiences and emotions, they unify with one another, transcending surface differences and forming a collective spiritual bond.
In practice
In a speech about community, one might say, 'As Kazantzakis reminds us, what a miracle life is when we recognize our shared humanity.'
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.
The most valuable thing my dad taught me was to never care about what other people thought. When he came to my shows, and I'd announce his presence, he'd stand up with his hands clasped in victory and cheer my name.
Donβt just be yourself. Be all of yourselves. Donβt just live. Be that other thing connected to death. Be life. Live all of your life. Understand it, see it, appreciate it. And have fun.
We think of bulimia and anorexia as either a bizarre psychosis, or as a quirky little habit, a phase, or as a thing that women just do. We forget that it is a violent act, that it bespeaks a profound level of anger toward and fear of the self.
Life is too short, and the time we waste in yawning never can be regained.
It is true that I have had heartache and tragedy in my life. These are things none of us avoids. Suffering is the price of being alive.
The great sadness of my life is that I never achieved the hour newscast, which would not have been twice as good as the half-hour newscast, but many times as good.
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