10. Zorba the Greek_Nikos Kazantzakis

The meaning of the words, art, love, beauty, purity, passion, all this was made clear to me by the simplest of human words uttered by this workman.

It is difficult for him to miss his aim, because his two feet are held firmly planted on the ground by the weight of his whole body.

The universe for Zorba, as for the first men on earth, was a weighty, intensive vision; the stars glided over him, the sea broke against his temples. He lived the earth, water, the animals and God, without the distorting intervention of reason.

They made a circle round Zorba and the santuri and began dancing on the pebbled shore. Thrilled, I watched them in silence. This is, I thought, the real vein I have been looking for! I want no other.

The sight of a man just rends my poor devil, I think; he also eats and drinks and makes love and is frightened, whoever he is: he has his God and his devil just the same, and he’ll peg out and lie as stiff as a board beneath the ground and be food for worms, just the same.

Each time that within ourselves we are the conquerors, although externally utterly defeated, we human beings feel an indescribable pride and joy. Outward calamity is transformed into a supreme and unshakable felicity.