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How can anyone have a true sense of the Hebrew race without crossing this terrifying desert, without experiencing it? For three interminable days we crossed it on our camels. Your throat sizzles from thirst, your head reels, your mind spins about as serpent-like you follow the sleek tortuous ravine. When a race is forged for two score years in this kiln, how can such a race die? I rejoiced at seeing the terrible stones where the Hebrews' virtues were born: their perseverance, will power, obstinacy, endurance, and above all, a God flesh of their flesh, flame of their flame, to whom they cried, 'Feed us! Kill our enemies! Lead us to the Promised Land!' To this desert the Jews owe their continued survival and the fact that by means of their virtues and vices they dominate the world. Today, in the unstable period of wrath, vengeance, and violence through which we are passing, the Jews are of necessity once again the chosen people of the terrible God of Exodus from the land of bondage.

Nikos Kazantzakis#152

HistoryResilienceEnduranceSurvival

About this quote

What does it mean?
Hardship and desert experiences forged the Hebrew people's survival and virtues.
In plain terms
Surviving harsh deserts built Jewish endurance and strength.
What can you take from it?
Hardship shapes character and survival.

Where it applies

  • historical reflection
  • identity formation

Putting it to work

  • learn from history
  • build endurance

Questions to consider

  • How does hardship shape identity?
  • What builds national endurance?

Another view

Generalizing virtues based on historical suffering can oversimplify culture.

More from Nikos Kazantzakis

  1. Inhuman solitude made of sand and God. Surely only two kinds of people can bear to live in such desert: lunatics and prophets. The mind topples here not from f…

    Permalink to quote #151
  2. 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. Soile…

    Permalink to quote #153
  3. Sodom and Gomorrah reclined along the riverbank like two whores kissing each other. Men copulated with other men, women with other women, men with mares, women…

    Permalink to quote #150

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