As you walk, you cut open and create that river bed into which the stream of your descendants shall enter and flow.
Interpretation
Our actions shape the future for generations to come.
This quote by Nikos Kazantzakis emphasizes the significance of our choices and actions over our lifetime, suggesting that the paths we create and the legacies we leave are what future generations will inherit. It reflects the idea that we are not merely living for ourselves but are also responsible for guiding and impacting the lives of those who follow us, much like how a riverbed directs the flow of water.
In practice
Use this quote during a graduation speech to inspire students to consider their impact.
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 enjoyed my breakfast this morning, and I think that was a good thing and do not think it was condemned by God. But I do not think myself a good man for enjoying it.
A new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken...
Doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life. It is worse than useless; it does positive harm. Something of 'the image of Christ' must be seen and observed by others in our private life, and habits, and character, and doings.
Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.
We were not realizing that, with just a machete, you can do a genocide.
Whatever is silenced will clamor to be heard, though silently.
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