Sappho quotes
Explore a curated collection of Sappho's most famous quotes. Dive into timeless reflections that offer deep insights into life, love, and the human experience through his profound words.
Experience shows us Wealth unchaperoned by Virtue is never an innocuous neighbor.
There is no place for grief in a house which serves the Muse.
What cannot be said will be wept.
Love, like a mountain-wind upon an oak, falling upon me, shakes me leaf and bough.
Now the Earth with many flowers puts on her spring embroidery
When anger spreads through the breath, guard thy tongue from barking idly.
How love the limb-loosener sweeps me away
The moon has set In a bank of jet That fringes the Western sky, The pleiads seven Have sunk from heaven And the midnight hurries by; My hopes are flown And, alas! alone On my weary couch I lie.
Although only breath, words which I command are immortal.
Dancing up the full moon Round some fair new altar Trample the soft blossoms of fine grass.
Mere air, these words, but delicious to hear.
Stars veil their beauty soon / Beside the glorious moon, / When her full silver light / Doth make the whole earth bright.
Eros harrows my heart: wild gales sweeping desolate mountains, uprooting oaks.
Raise high the roof-beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom, taller far than a tall man.
Whatever one loves most is beautiful.
I will let my body flow like water over the gentle cushions.
For some the fairest thing on the dark earth is Thermopylae, And the Spartan phalanx lowering lances to die.
I know not what to do, my mind is divided
May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve.
The moon is setand the Pleiades; Middle ofthe night, time passes by,I lie alone.
Death must be an evil and the gods agree; for why else would they live for ever?
From all the offspring of the earth and heaven love is the most precious.
I would not think to touch the sky with two arms
Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables.
You may forget but let me tell you this: someone in some future time will think of us
Some say an army of horsemen, or infantry, A fleet of ships is the fairest thing On the face of the black earth, but I say It's what one loves.
Would Jove appoint some flower to reign, in matchless beauty on the plain, the Rose (mankind will all agree). The Rose the queen of flowers should be.
Death is an evil; the gods have so judged; had it been good, they would die.
Someone, I tell you, in another time will remember us
To me the Muses truly gave / An envied and a happy lot: / E'en when I lie within the grave, / I cannot, shall not, be forgot.
The moon has set, and the Pleiades; it is midnight, and time passes, and I sleep alone.
Love shook my heart/ Like the wind on the mountain/ Troubling the oak-trees
The Moon and Pleiades have set, / Midnight is nigh, / The time is passing, passing, yet / Alone I lie.
Stand and face me, my love,and scatter the grace in your eyes.
He who is fair to look upon is good, and he who is good will soon be fair also.
Death is an ill; 'tis thus the Gods decide: / For had death been a boon, the Gods had died.
Hesperus bringing together All that the morning star scattered.
When I look on you a moment, then I can speak no more, but my tongue falls silent, and at once a delicate flame courses beneath my skin, and with my eyes I see nothing, and my ears hum, and a wet sweat bathes me and a trembling seizes me all over.
Once again love drives me on, that loosener of limbs, bittersweet creature against which nothing can be done.
All the while, believe me, I prayed our night would last twice as long.
Without warning as a whirlwind swoops on an oak Love shakes my heart
In gold sandals / dawn like a thief / fell upon me.
Beauty endures only for as long as it can be seen; goodness, beautiful today, will remain so tomorrow.
With his venom irresistible and bittersweet that loosener of limbs, Love reptile-like strikes me down
If you are squeamish Don't prod the beach rubble.
Eros seizes and shakes my very soul like the wind on the mountain shaking ancient oaks.
I do not know what to do, my mind's in two.
I took my lyre and said: come now, my heavenly tortoise shell: become a speaking instrument.
The evening star Is the most beautiful of all stars
Builders, raise the ceiling high, Raise the dome into the sky, Hear the wedding song! For the happy groom is near, Tall as Mars, and statelier, Hear the wedding song!
Love - bittersweet, irrepressible - loosens my limbs and I tremble.
No honey for me, if it comes with a bee.
