Kazantzakis, Nikos

1883 - Born on the 18th of February in Heraklion, Crete, Greece.

1902 - Kazantzakis began the study of law at the University of Athens.

1907 - Went to Paris to study philosophy, where he studied under Henri Bergson.

1914 - He met Angelos Sikelianos. Together they travelled for two years in places where Greek Christian culture flourished, largely influenced by the enthusiastic nationalism of Sikelianos.

1919 - Director General of the Ministry of Social Relief.

1945 - He became the leader of a small party on the noncommunist left, and entered the Greek government as Minister without Portfolio. He resigned this post the following year.

1946 - The Society of Greek Writers recommended that Kazantzakis and Angelos Sikelianos be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1957 - He lost the Prize to Albert Camus by one vote. Camus later said that Kazantzakis deserved the honour "a hundred times more" than himself.

1957 - Died on the 26th of October in Freiburg, Germany.

• "Maybe you're right, boss. It all depends on the way you look at it. Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree.'What, grandad!'I exclaimed.'Planting an almond tree?'and he, bent as he was, turned round 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?"
• "What, then is our duty? It is to carefully distinguish the historic moment in which we live and to consciously assign our small energies to a specific battlefield. The more we are in phase with the current which leads the way, the more we aid man in his difficult, uncertain, danger-fraught ascent toward salvation."
• "The ultimate most holy form of theory is action."