Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.
Interpretation
Having a folly or obsession is a part of being human, and to lack one is the true folly.
This quote by Nikos Kazantzakis suggests that every person has their own unique obsession or passion, often referred to as a 'folly.' However, he argues that the most significant mistake one can make is to live a life devoid of such passions, as they give depth and meaning to our existence. Folly in this sense is not merely foolishness, but rather an essential trait that fuels individuality and creativity.
In practice
During a motivational speech about pursuing 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.
The more there is on offer, the more you don't want. Fifty options of cereal does not hone an epicurean expertise in the finer points of puffed rice, it murders appetite.
I've had years of bizarre hallucinogenic magical experiences in which I believed I had communicated with entities that may well have been disassociated parts of my own personality or conceivably some independent entity of a metaphysical nature. Both would seem equally interesting.
At the foot of the cross, there are no racial barriers.
Brothers, he who dies here dies in the radiance of the future, and we are entering a tomb all flooded with the dawn.
Simplicity is the essence of universality.
I am a person before I am anything else. I never say I am a writer. I never say I am an artist...I am a person who does those things.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.