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About this quote

What does it mean?
Hope perpetually emerges from suffering and joy, creating an endless upward spiral of struggle and renewal.
In plain terms
Life is a never-ending cycle of pain and joy that constantly builds higher.
What can you take from it?
Embrace the ongoing struggle as a path to expansion.

Where it applies

  • overcoming adversity
  • personal renewal
  • existential reflection

Putting it to work

  • journaling progress
  • mindfulness
  • creative expression

Questions to consider

  • Where do you find hope in pain?
  • How do you view change?

Another view

The idea of eternal ascent may ignore periods of necessary rest.

More from Nikos Kazantzakis

  1. Pain is not the only essence of our God, nor is hope in a future life or a life on this earth, neither joy nor victory. Every religion that holds up to worship…

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  2. What is the purpose of this struggle? This is what the wretched self-seeking mind of man is always asking, forgetting that the Great Spirit does not toil withi…

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  3. God huddles in a knot in every cell of flesh. When I break a fruit open, this is how every seed is revealed to me. When I speak to men, this what I discern in …

    Permalink to quote #57

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