“If some priest or other comes to take my confession and give me sacrament, tell him to clear out, quick, and leave me his curse instead! I´ve done heaps and heaps of things in my life, but I still did not do enough. Men like me ought to live a thousand years.”

“God enjoys himself, kills, commits injustice, makes love, works, likes impossible things, just the same as I do.But, boss, I´ve said so before, and I say it again, God and the devil are one and the same thing!”

“Christ is born, my wise Solomon, my wretched pen-pusher! Don´t go picking things over with a needle! Is He born or isn´t He? Of course He is born, don´t be daft. If you take a magnifying glass and look at your drinking water-an engineer told me this, one day – you´ll see, he said, the water´s full of little worms you couldn´t see with your naked eye. You´ll see the worms and you won´t drink. You won´t drink and you´ll curl up with thirst. Smash your glass, boss, and the little worms´ll vanish and you can drink and be refreshed!”

“Wykonywana w połowie praca- mówił mi kiedyś- wyrażane w połowie mysli, półgrzesznicy i półświęci doprowadzili ten świat do opłakanego stanu, w jakim dzis się znajduje. Idź prosto do celu, wal śmiało, nie bój się, azwyciężysz! Bóg bardziej nienawidzi diabła od arcydiabła.”

“في أقصى حالات يأسنا نسمع بداخلنا أحداً يصيح: "لست يائساً. إني أكافح. أقبع فوق رأسك. أطل من جسدك. أنبثق من الأرض، لا تسعني العقول ولا الأسماء ولا الأفعال”

“Throughout my life my greatest benefactors have been my travels and my dreams. Very few men, living or dead, have helped me in my struggles.”

“Tell me what you do with the food you eat, and I'll tell you who you are. Some turn their food into fat and manure, some into work and good humor, and others, I'm told, into God. So there must be three sorts of men. I'm not one of the worst, boss, nor yet one of the best. I'm somewhere in between the two. What I eat I turn into work and good humor. That's not too bad, after all!'He looked at me wickedly and started laughing.'As for you, boss,' he said, 'I think you do your level best to turn what you eat into God. But you can't quite manage it, and that torments you. The same thing's happening to you as happened to the crow.''What happened to the crow, Zorba?''Well, you see, he used to walk respectably, properly - well, like a crow. But one day he got it into his head to try and strut about like a pigeon. And from that time on the poor fellow couldn't for the life of him recall his own way of walking. He was all mixed up, don't you see? He just hobbled about.”