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Overdraw Me, Lord, And Who Cares If I Break.
-Nikos Kazantzakis
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Overdraw Me, Lord, And

Nikos Kazantzakis
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Overdraw Me, Lord, And Who Cares If I Break.

Understanding the Quote: "overdraw me, lord, and who cares if i break...."

This quote by Nikos Kazantzakis reflects deeply on the theme of who cares. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Who Cares, Lord, Break, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Nikos Kazantzakis interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Nikos Kazantzakis

Nikos Kazantzakis is celebrated for insightful thoughts on who cares and lord. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Who Cares
Lord
Break
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The Masses Do Not See The Sirens. They Do Not Hear Songs In The Air. Blind, Deaf, Stooping, They Pull At Their Oars In The Hold Of The Earth. But The More Select, The Captains, Harken To A Siren Within Them...and Royally Squander Their Lives With Her.
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Good Lord, How Can The Rich Bear To Die?
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We're Going To Start With Small, Easy Things; Then, Little By Little We Shall Try Our Hand At The Big Things. And After That, After We Finish The Big Things, We Shall Undertake The Impossible.
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As Long As There Are Flowers And Children And Birds In The World, Have No Fears: Everything Will Be Fine.
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Be Always Restless, Unsatisfied, Unconforming. Whenever A Habit Becomes Convenient, Smash It! The Greatest Sin Of All Is Satisfaction.
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You Do Miracles If You Concentrate Your Mind On One Thing And One Thing Only.
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Once More There Sounded Within Me The Terrible Warning That There Is Only One Life For All Men, That There Is Only One Life For All Men, That There Is No Other And That All That Can Be Enjoyed Must Be Enjoyed Here. In Eternity No Other Chance Will Be Given To Us.
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The Landscape Affects The Human Psyche - The Soul, The Body And The Innermost Contemplations - Like Music. Every Time You Feel Nature Deeper You Resonate Better With Her, Finding New Elements Of Balance And Freedom.
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I Heard The Bells From The Future Churches, The Children Playing And Laughing In The Schoolyards [...] And Here Was An Almond Tree In Bloom Before Me: I Must Reach Out And Cut A Flowering Branch. For, By Believing Passionately In Something Which Still Does Not Exist, We Create It. The Nonexistent Is Whatever We Have Not Sufficiently Desired, Whatever We Have Not Irrigated With Our Blood To Such A Degree That It Becomes Strong Enough To Stride Across The Somber Threshold Of Nonexistence.
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Since We Cannot Change Reality, Let Us Change The Eyes Which See Reality," Says One Of My Favorite Byzantine Mystics. I Did This When A Child; I Do It Now As Well In The Most Creative Moments Of My Life.
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Each Man Must Have His Own Special Route To Lead Him To God.
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I Hope For Nothing. I Fear Nothing. I Am Free.
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A Person Needs A Little Madness, Or Else They Never Dare Cut The Rope And Be Free.
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Before Me Is The Abyss. How Can I Leap Across It? And If I Do Not Leap, How Shall I Ever Be Able To Reach God?
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I Know Now: I Do Not Hope For Anything. I Do Not Fear Anything, I Have Freed Myself From Both The Mind And The Heart, I Have Mounted Much Higher, I Am Free .
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It Was Certainly Not This Mummified And Outrageously Painted Old Woman He Was Seeing Before Him, But The Entire "female Species," As It Was His Custom To Call Women. The Individual Disappeared, The Features Were Obliterated, Whether Young Or Senile, Beautiful Or Ugly - Those Were Mere Unimportant Variations. Behind Each Woman Rises The Austere, Sacred And Mysterious Face Of Aphrodite.
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The Only Thing I Know Is This: I Am Full Of Wounds And Still Standing On My Feet.
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All Roads Lead To The Earth; The Abyss Leads To God. Jump!
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Die Every Day. Be Reborn Again Every Day.
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There Is No Harsher Means Of Punishment, Than To Answer Malice With Kindness.
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I Was Ill Before I Fell Ill.
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I Was Happy, I Knew That. While Experiencing Happiness, We Have Difficulty In Being Conscious Of It. Only When The Happiness Is Past And We Look Back On It Do We Suddenly Realize - Sometimes With Astonishment - How Happy We Had Been.
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Thus Night With All Her Snares Passed Through The Upper World And Baited All Heads Sweetly, Fed All Foolish Hopes, For Night Can Bring To Men All Shrewish Day Denies, Wrapped As A Gift In The Green Leaves Of Opiate Dream.
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Beauty Always Had A Purpose: To Be Of Service To Life.
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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?
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How Simple And Frugal A Thing Is Happiness.
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The Doors Of Heaven And Hell Are Adjacent And Identical.
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I Collect My Tools: Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, Hearing, Intellect. Night Has Fallen.
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All My Life One Of My Greatest Desires Has Been To Travel-to See And Touch Unknown Countries, To Swim In Unknown Seas, To Circle The Globe, Observing New Lands, Seas, People, And Ideas With Insatiable Appetite, To See Everything For The First Time And For The Last Time, Casting A Slow, Prolonged Glance, Then To Close My Eyes And Feel The Riches Deposit Themselves Inside Me Calmly Or Stormily According To Their Pleasure, Until Time Passes Them At Last Through Its Fine Sieve, Straining The Quintessence Out Of All The Joys And Sorrows.
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How Does The Light Of A Star Set Out And Plunge Into Black Eternity In Its Immortal Course? The Star Dies, But The Light Never Dies; Such Also Is The Cry Of Freedom.
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Overdraw Me, Lord, And Who Cares If I Break.
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The Only Way To Save Yourself Is To Endeavor To Save Others.
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Every Village Has Its Simpleton, And If One Does Not Exist They Invent One To Pass The Time.
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To Succeed, You Must First Believe You Can.
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Cursed Be All Those On Land And Sea Who Eat Their Fill, Cursed Be All Those Who Starve Yet Raise No Hand In Protest, Cursed Be All The Bread, The Wine, The Meat Which Day By Day Descends Deep In The Entrails Of The Exploited Man And Turns Not Into Freedom's Cry, The Murderer's Ruthless Knife!
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Beauty Is Merciless. You Do Not Look At It, It Looks At You And Does Not Forgive.
Forgiving
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Two Equally Steep And Bold Paths May Lead To The Same Peak. To Act As If Death Did Not Exist, Or To Act Thinking Every Minute Of Death, Is Perhaps The Same Thing.
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He Who Is Invisible Sees More Clearly, Hears More Clearly, And Is Better Able To Read The Thoughts Of Men.
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I Said To The Almond Tree, 'sister, Speak To Me Of God.' And The Almond Tree Blossomed.
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Tree
Almonds
A Magical Portal Opened Inside My Mind And Conducted Me Into An Astonishing World. [...] Before This Moment I Had Divined But Had Never Known With Such Positiveness That The World Is Extremely Large And That Suffering And Toil Are The Companions And Fellow Warriors Not Only Of Cretan, But Of Every Man. [...] That By Means Of Poetry All This Suffering And Effort Could Be Transformed Into Dream; No Matter How Much Of The Ephemeral Existed, Poetry Could Immortalize It By Turning It Into Song.
Dream
Song
Mean
I Possess No Weapon But Love. With That I Have Come To Do Battle. Help Me!
Life
Battle
Weapons
Look, One Day I Had Gone To A Little Village. An Old Grandfather Of Ninety Was Busy Planting An Almond Tree. ‘what, Grandfather!’ I Exclaimed. ‘planting An Almond Tree?’ And He, Bent As He Was, Turned Around And Said: ‘my Son, I Carry On As If I Should Never Die.’ I Replied: ‘and I Carry On As If I Was Going To Die Any Minute.’ Which Of Us Was Right, Boss?
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Boss
You Gave Me Your Curse, Holy Fathers. I Give You A Blessing: May You Be As Moral And Religious As I Am.
Religious
Father
Blessing
Man Hurries, God Does Not. That Is Why Man's Works Are Uncertain And Maimed, While God's Are Flawless And Sure. My Eyes Welling With Tears, I Vowed Never To Transgress This Eternal Law Again. Like A Tree I Would Be Blasted By Wind, Struck By Sun And Rain, And Would Wait With Confidence; The Long-desired Hour Of Flowering And Fruit Would Come.
Rain
Eye
Men
Never In My Life Have I Feared Death As Much As I Feared That Resurrection.
Resurrection
There Is Only One Woman In The World. One Woman, With Many Faces.
World
Faces
One Woman
I Hope For Nothing. I Fear Nothing. I Am Free. Inscription On Kazantakis's Tomb In Heraklion, Greece
Hope
Fear
Inscriptions
By Believing Passionately In That Which Doesn't Exist, You Create It And That Which Has Not Been Sufficiently Desired Is What We Call The Non Existent.
Believe
When Everyone Drowns And I'm The Only One To Escape, God Is Protecting Me. When Everyone Else Is Saved And I'm The Only One To Drown, God Is Protecting Me Then Too.
Saved
We Have Seen The Highest Circle Of Spiraling Powers. We Have Named This Circle God. We Might Have Given It Any Other Name We Wished: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Ultimate Despair, Silence.
Circles
Names
Light
The Ultimate, Most Holy Form Of Theory Is Action.
Hard Work
Acting
Action
Ah, If You Could Dance All That You've Just Said, Then I'd Understand.
Dance
Said
Ifs
I Hate All Virtues Based On Food And Bloated Bellies; Though Food And Drink Are Good, I'm Better Slaked And Fed By That Inhuman Flame Which Burns In Our Black Bowels. I Like To Name That Flame Which Burns Within Me God!
Hate
Flames
Names
Since We Cannot Change Reality, Let Us Change The Eyes Which See Reality.
Change
Eye
Opportunity
Only After I've Seen The Visible Can I Imagine What The Invisible Is.
Imagine
Invisible
Visible
Inexperience Loves To Preach.
Inexperience
Every Perfect Traveler Always Creates The Country Where He Travels.
Country
Travel
Journey
All Those Who Actually Live The Mysteries Of Life Haven't The Time To Write, And All Those Who Have The Time Don't Live Them! D'you See?
Writing
Mystery
Havens
You Have Your Brush, You Have Your Colors, You Paint The Paradise, Then In You Go.
Color
Paradise
Paint
Lord, Bend Me, Or I Shall Rot. Lord Do Not Bend Me Too Much, For I Shall Break. Lord Bend Me Too Much, Who Cares If I Break!
Who Cares
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Lord
For I Realize Today That It Is A Mortal Sin To Violate The Great Laws Of Nature. We Should Not Hurry, We Should Not Be Impatient, But We Should Confidently Obey The Eternal Rhythm.
Law
Today
Sin
The Truth Is That We All Are One, That All Of Us Together Create God, That God Is Not Man's Ancestor, But His Descendant.
Men
Together
Truth Is
Whoever Climbed The Lord's Mountain Had To Possess Clean Hands And An Innocent Heart; Otherwise The Summit Would Kill Him. Today The Doorway Is Deserted. Soiled Hands And Sinful Hearts Are Able To Pass By Without Fear, For The Summit Kills No Longer.
Heart
Hands
Mountain
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.
Army
Men
Two
Truly, Everything In This World Depended On Time. Time Ripened All. If You Had Time, You Succeeded In Working The Human Mud Internally And Turning It Into Spirit. Then You Did Not Fear Death. If You Did Not Have Time, You Perished.
World
Mud
Spirit
What Is Love? It Is Not Simply Compassion, Not Simply Kindness. In Compassion There Are Two: The One Who Suffers And The One Who Feels Compassion. In Kindness There Are Two: The One Who Gives And The One Who Receives. But In Love There Is Only One; The Two Join, Unite, Become Inseparable. The I And The You Vanish. To Love Means To Lose Oneself In The Beloved.
Kindness
Mean
Compassion
No Wide Road Leads To God.
Wide
Be Sure To Live Up To Your Reputation For Honesty And Goodness, Because Many Souls Who Believe You To Be Honest And Good Have Placed Themselves In Your Hands.
Honesty
Believe
Hands
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.
Morning
Eye
Perspective
I Believe I'm A Caterpillar Buried Deep Down Under The Ground. The Entire Earth Is Above Me, Crushing Me And I Begin To Bore Through The Soil, Making A Passage To The Surface So That I Can Penetrate The Crust And Issue Into The Light. It's Hard Work Boring Through The Entire Earth, But I'm Able To Be Patient Because I Have A Strong Premonition That As Soon As I Do Issue Into The Light I Shall Become A Butterfly.
Crush
Strong
Believe
There Is Only One Sin God Will Not Forgive Boss, And That Is To Deny A Woman Who Is In Wanting ~ Zorba
Boss
Forgiving
Sin
When An Almond Tree Became Covered With Blossoms In The Heart Of Winter, All The Trees Around It Began To Jeer. 'what Vanity,' They Screamed, 'what Insolence! Just Think, It Believes It Can Bring Spring In This Way!' The Flowers Of The Almond Tree Blushed For Shame. 'forgive Me, My Sisters,' Said The Tree. 'i Swear I Did Not Want To Blossom, But Suddenly I Felt A Warm Springtime Breeze In My Heart.
Spring
Believe
Flower
I Am A Weak, Ephemeral Creature Made Of Mud And Dream. But I Feel All The Powers Of The Universe Whirling Within Me.
Dream
Ephemeral
Mud
Fools, Art Is A Heavy Task, More Heavy Than Gold Crowns; It's Far More Difficult To Match Firm Words Than Armies, They're Disciplined Troops, Unconquered, To Be Placed In Rhythm, The Mind's Most Mighty Foe, And Not Disperse In Air. I'd Give, Believe Me, A Whole Land For One Good Song, For I Know Well That Only Words, That Words Alone, Like The High Mountains, Have No Fear Of Age Or Death.
Song
Art
Believe
With The World In The State It Is Today, Whoever Is Virtuous Must Be So To The Point Of Sainthood, And Even Beyond; Whoever Is A Sinner Must Be So To The Point Of Bestiality And Even Beyond. Today The Middle Road Is No More.
Sainthood
World
Today
No! No! Never Acknowledge The Limitations Of Man. Smash All Boundaries! Deny Whatever Your Eyes See. Die Every Moment, But Say: Death Does Not Exist.'
Eye
Men
Doe
My Entire Soul Is A Cry, And All My Work Is A Commentary On That Cry.
Soul
Cry
Commentary
What Is Truth? What Is Falsehood? Whatever Gives Wings To Men, Whatever Produces Great Works And Great Souls And Lifts Up A Man's Height Above The Earth - That's True. Whatever Clips Off Man's Wings - That's False.
Men
Wings
Giving
We Come From A Dark Abyss, We End In A Dark Abyss, And We Call The Luminous Interval Life.
Dark
Ends
Abyss
Life On Earth Means: The Sprouting Of Wings.
Mean
Wings
Earth
All The Political, Social, And Economic Improvements, All The Technical Progress Cannot Have Any Regenerating Significance, So Long As Our Inner Life Remains As It Is At Present. The More The Intelligence Unveils And Violates The Secrets Of Nature, The More The Danger Increases And The Heart Shrinks.
Inspiring
Heart
Long
The Real Meaning Of Enlightenment Is To Gaze With Undimmed Eyes On All Darkness.
Inspirational
Real
Eye
What First Truly Stirred My Soul Was Not Fear Or Pain, Nor Was It Pleasure Or Games; It Was The Yearning For Freedom. I Had To Gain Freedom-but From What, From Whom? Little By Little, In The Course Of Time, I Mounted Freedom's Rough Unaccommodating Ascent. To Gain Freedom First Of All From The Turk, That Was The Initial Step; After That, Later, This New Struggle Began: To Gain Freedom From The Inner Turk-from Ignorance, Malice And Envy, From Fear And Laziness, From Dazzling False Ideas; And Finally From Idols, All Of Them, Even The Most Revered And Beloved.
Pain
Struggle
Ignorance
The Highest Point A Man Can Attain Is Not Knowledge, Or Virtue, Or Goodness, Or Victory, But Something Even Greater, More Heroic And More Despairing: Sacred Awe!
Knowledge
Men
Victory
Go As Far As You Can. Go Further Than You Can!
If Only We Know, Boss, What The Stones And Rain And Flowers Say. Maybe They Call-call Us-and We Don't Hear Them. When Will People's Ears Open, Boss? When Shall We Have Our Eyes Open To See? When Shall We Open Our Arms To Embrace Everything-stones, Rain, Flowers, And People? What Do You Think About That, Boss? And What Do Your Books Have To Say About That?
Nature
Rain
Flower
I Should Learn To Run, To Wrestle, To Swim, To Ride Horses, To Row, To Drive A Car, To Fire A Rifle. I Should Fill My Soul With Flesh. I Should Fill My Flesh With Soul. In Fact, I Should Reconcile At Last Within Me The Two Internal Antagonists.
Running
Horse
Fire
O Sun, Great Oriental, My Proud Mind's Golden Cap, I Love To Wear You Cocked Askew, To Play And Burst In Song Throughout Our Lives, And So Rejoice Our Hearts.
Song
Heart
Play
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