Alexis Zorba Quotes in Zorba the Greek (1964)

Basil: I don't want any trouble.

Alexis Zorba: Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.

Alexis Zorba: Damn it boss, I like you too much not to say it. You've got everthing except one thing: madness! A man needs a little madness, or else...

Basil: Or else?

Alexis Zorba: ...he never dares cut the rope and be free.

Alexis Zorba: On a deaf man's door, you can knock forever!

Alexis Zorba: Why do the young die? Why does anybody die?

Basil: I don't know.

Alexis Zorba: What's the use of all your damn books if they can't answer that?

Basil: They tell me about the agony of men who can't answer questions like yours.

Alexis Zorba: I spit on this agony!

Alexis Zorba: You think too much.That is your trouble.Clever people and grocers, they weigh everything.

Alexis Zorba: If a woman sleeps alone, it puts a shame on all men.

Alexis Zorba: What kind of man are you, don't you even like dolphins?

Alexis Zorba: How can I not love them? Poor weak creatures... and they take so little, a man's hand on their breast, and they give you all they got.

Alexis Zorba: God has a very big heart but there is one sin he will not forgive

[slaps table]

Alexis Zorba: if a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go. I know because a very wise old Turk told me.

Alexis Zorba: All right, we go outside where God can see us better.

Alexis Zorba: Hey boss, did you ever see a more splendiferous crash?

Alexis Zorba: Am I not a man? And is a man not stupid? I'm a man, so I married. Wife, children, house, everything. The full catastrophe.

Alexis Zorba: Silly old bitch. She's not alone, she's with Suleiman Pasha having a hell of a time.

Alexis Zorba: No more fooling around, not in this place. We'll pull our pants up and make a pile of money.

Alexis Zorba: There will be no funeral. She was a Frank, she crossed herself with four fingers. The priest will not bury her like everybody else.

Alexis Zorba: Those damn cats!

Alexis Zorba: The lamb, it will burn!