Saint Francis
Nikos Kazantzakis
Top 10 Best Quotes
“When an almond tree became covered with blossoms in the heart of winter, all the trees around it began to jeer. 'What vanity,' they screamed, 'what insolence! Just think, it believes it can bring spring in this way!' The flowers of the almond tree blushed for shame. 'Forgive me, my sisters,' said the tree. 'I swear I did not want to blossom, but suddenly I felt a warm springtime breeze in my heart.”
“The canary began to sing again. The sun had struck it, and its throat and tiny breast had filled with song. Francis gazed at it for a long time, not speaking, his mouth hanging half opened, his eyes dimmed with tears. "The canary is like man's soul," he whispered finally. "It sees bars round it, but instead if despairing, it sings. It sings, and wait and see, Brother Leo: one day its song shall break the bars.”
“What is love? It is not simply compassion, not simply kindness. In compassion there are two: the one who suffers and the one who feels compassion. In kindness there are two: the one who gives and the one who receives. But in love there is only one; the two join, unite, become inseparable. The 'I' and the 'you' vanish. To love means to lose oneself in the beloved.”
“It is impossible for me to remember how many days or weeks went by in this way. Time is round, and it rolls quickly.”
“ADAM AND EVE, sitting in Paradise, chatting: "If we could only open the gate and leave," says Eve. "To go where, my dearest?" "If we could only open the gate and leave!" "Outside is sickness, pain, death!" "If we could only open the gate and leave!”
“Who knows, perhaps God is simply the search for God.”
“Madness, Brother Masseo, is the salt which prevents good sense from rotting.”
“In order to mount to heaven, you used the Inferno to give you momentum. "The further down you gain your momentum," you often used to tell me, "the higher you shall be able to reach. The militant Christian's greatest worth is not his virtue, but his struggle to transform into virtue the impudence, dishonor, unfaithfulness, and malice within him. One day Lucifer will be the most glorious archangel standing next to God; not Michael, Gabriel, or Raphael—but Lucifer, after he has finally transubstantiated his terrible darkness into light.”
“What do you have to fear? Nothing. Whom do you have to fear? No one. Why? Because whoever has joined forces with God obtains three great privileges: omnipotence without power, intoxication without wine, and life without death.”
“I pity the village where no one is a saint, but I also pity the village where everyone is a saint!”
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Book Keywords:
struggle, dissatisfaction, tempus-fugit, omnipotence, genesis, 1962, hell, time, adam-and-eve, redemption, lucifer, heaven, fear, paradise, memory, saints, francis-of-assistance, love, time-flies, francis-of-assisi, madness, union
