Zorba the Greek

Zorba the Greek (orig. Βίος και Πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά, literally meaning Life and Politics of Alexis Zorepa) is a novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis in 1946. It is considered to be Kazantzakis' most enduring and successful novel, having the ability to be thought-provoking and insightful, regardless of the era. In it a young Greek intellectual (replaced by an Englishman in the famous film), the narrator, is writing on a manuscript about the Buddha. He meets Alexis Zorba who greatly influences his outlook on life. The narrator, whose name is not revealed, hires Zorba to superintend the workmen in his lignite mine in Crete.

This novel was translated into English by Carl Wildman and published first by London, John Lehmann, 1952; New York, Simon and Schuster, 1953; Oxford, Bruno Cassirer, 1959; London & Boston: Faber and Faber, 1961 and New York: Ballantine Books, 1964. In 1964 a film under the same title based on this novel was published, directed and screenplayed by Michael Cacoyannis.

Chapter 2

• "What kind of a man are you? Don't you even like dolphins!?"
• "The maimed don't get into Paradise."
• "A man's a savage beast when he's young...he eats sheep...and hens and pigs, but if he doesn't eat men his belly's not satisfied."

Chapter 3

• Behind each woman rises the austere, sacred and mysterious face of Aphrodite. That was the face Zorba was seeing and talking to, and desiring. Dame Hortense was only an ephemeral and transparent mask which Zorba tore away to kiss the eternal mouth.

Chapter 4

• Man is a brute [...] It seems everything's been too easy for you, but you ask me! A brute, I tell you! If you're cruel to him, he respects and fears you. If you're kind to him, he plucks your eyes out.
• Keep your distance, boss! Don't make men too bold, don't go telling them we're all equal, we've got the same rights, or they'll go straight and trample on your rights; they'll steal your bread and leave you to die of hunger.

Chapter 6

• "Tell me what you do with the food you eat, and I'll tell you what you are. Some turn their food into fat and manure, some into work and good humor, and others, I'm told, into God."

Chapter 8

• "...[Y]ou must sometimes rejoice that the dark forces of destruction are so numerous and invincible: for thus your aim to live almost without hope becomes more heroic and your soul acquires a more tragic greatness."

Chapter 11

• "...[I]t is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm."

Chapter 16

• "We travel, crossing whole countries and seas and yet we've never pushed our noses past the doorstep of our home."

• "You have seen what happens when you hold a glass out to the sun and concentrate all the rays onto one spot [...] ? That spot soon catches fire, doesn't it? Why? Because the sun's power has not been dispersed but concentrated on that one spot. It is the same with men's minds. You do miracles, if you concentrate your mind on one thing and only one."

Chapter 23

• What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, radishes, and out of him come sighs, laughter and dreams. Like a factory. I'm sure there's a sort of talking-film cinema in our heads.

Unsourced

• Wife; children; house; everything. The full catastrophe.

• Live life and enjoy it!

• Boss, everything's simple in the world. How many times must I tell you? So don't go and complicate things!

• I'm sorting out my own brand of folly here in Candia

• You want to build a monastery. That's it! Instead of monks you'd stick a few quill drivers like your honored self inside and they'd pass the time scribbing day and night. [...] Well, I'm going to ask you a favor, holy abbot: I want you to appoint me doorkeeper to your monastery so that I can do some smuggling and, now and then, let some very strange things through into the holy precincts: women, mandolins, demijohns of raki, roast sucking pigs ... All so that you don't fritter away your life with a lot of nonsense!

• It's all because of doing things by halves, saying things by halves, that the world is in the mess is in today. Do things properly by God! One good knock for each nail and you'll win through! God hates a halfdevil ten times more than an archdevil!

• `Alexis,' he said, `I'm going to tell you a secret. You're too small to understand now, but you'll understand when you are bigger. Listen, little one: neither the seven stories of heaven nor the seven stories of the earth are enough to contain God; but a man's heart can contain him. So be very careful, Alexis - and may my blessing go with you - never to wound a man's heart!'

• What d'you lack? You're young, you have money, health, you're a good fellow, you lack nothing. Nothing, by thunder! Except just one thing - folly! And when that's missing, boss, well ...