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.
I have a hard time figuring out what kind of box to put me in, too, because I don't know exactly what's going on around me or why. But I need to stay outside of boxes because then I can look at what's inside of them without being part of them.
It feels like we're always juggling many pieces of information at once or trying out many personas at once. It makes life slightly nonlinear.
A yogi's brain extends from the bottom of the foot to the top of his head
The longest tyranny that ever sway'd_x000D_ _x000D_ Was that wherein our ancestors betray'd_x000D_ _x000D_ Their free-born reason to the Stagirite [Aristotle],_x000D_ _x000D_ And made his torch their universal light._x000D_ _x000D_ So truth, while only one suppli'd the state,_x000D_ _x000D_ Grew scarce, and dear, and yet sophisticate.
Legislators invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind.
Let's develop theories, patiently and honestly thinking them out, in order to promptly act against them – acting and justifying our actions with new theories that condemn them. Let's cut a path in life and then go immediately against that path. Let's adopt all the poses and gestures of something we aren't and don't even wish to be, and don't even wish to taken for being.
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