Sappho > Quotes

“There is no place for grief in a house which serves the Muse.”
― Sappho

“You may forget but
let me tell you
this: someone in
some future time
will think of us”
― Sappho, The Art of Loving Women

“Stand and face me, my love,
and scatter the grace in your eyes.
”
― Sappho, Sweetbitter Love: Poems of Sappho

“Once again love drives me on, that loosener of limbs, bittersweet creature against which nothing can be done.”
― Sappho

“You came and I was longing for you.
You cooled a heart that burned with desire.”
― Sappho

“their heart grew cold
they let their wings down”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“I know not what to do, my mind is divided”
― Sappho

“...gracious your form and your eyes as honey : desire is poured upon your lovely face Aphrodite has honored you exceedingly...”
― Sappho

“Although only breath, words which I command are immortal.”
― Sappho

“Someone, I tell you, in another time will remember us”
― Sappho, Sweetbitter Love: Poems of Sappho

“Love shook my heart
Like the wind on the mountain
rushing over the oak trees.”
― Sappho

“If you are squeamish
Don't prod the
beach rubble.”
― Sappho, Sappho: A New Translation

“Whoever he is who opposite you
sits and listens close
to your sweet speaking
and lovely laughing – oh it
puts the heart in my chest on wings
for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking
is left in me
no: tongue breaks and thin
fire is racing under skin
and in eyes no sight and drumming
fills ears
and cold sweat holds me and shaking
grips me all, greener than grass”
― Sappho

“Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables.”
― Sappho

“The moon has set

And the Pleiades.

Midnight.

I lie in bed alone.”
― Sappho

“The gleaming stars all about the shining moon
Hide their bright faces, when full-orbed and splendid
In the sky she floats, flooding the shadowed earth
with clear silver light.
”
― Sappho

“What creature is it that is
female in nature and hides
in its womb unborn children
who, although they are voiceless,
speak to people far away?

The female creature is a letter.
The unborn children are the letters
(of the alphabet) it carries. And the
letters, although they have no voices,
speak to people far away.”
― Sappho

“you came and I was crazy for you
and you cooled my mind that burned with longing”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“Raise high the roof beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom, taller far than a tall man.”
― Sappho

“What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful.”
― Sappho

“In fact she herself once blamed me
Kyprogeneia

because I prayed
this word:
I want.”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“Although only breath, words which I speak are immortal.”
― Sappho, Fragments

“Now the Earth with many flowers puts on her spring embroidery”
― Sappho

“Girls, be good to these spirits of music and poetry
that breast your threshold with their scented gifts.
Lift the lyre, clear and sweet, they leave with you.

As for me, this body is now so arthritic
I cannot play, hardly even hold the instrument.
Can you believe my white hair was once black?

And oh, the soul grows heavy with the body.
Complaining knee-joints creak at every move.
To think I danced as delicate as a deer!

Some gloomy poems came from these thoughts:
useless: we are all born to lose life,
and what is worse, girls, to lose youth.

The legend of the goddess of the dawn
I’m sure you know: how rosy Eos
madly in love with gorgeous young Tithonus

swept him like booty to her hiding-place
but then forgot he would grow old and grey
while she in despair pursued her immortal way.”
― Sappho

“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.”
― Sappho

“]Sardis
often turning her thoughts here

]
you like a goddess
and in your song most of all she rejoiced.

But now she is conspicuous among Lydian women
as sometimes at sunset
the rosyfingered moon

surpasses all the stars. And her light
stretches over salt sea
equally and flowerdeep fields.

And the beautiful dew is poured out
and roses bloom and frail
chervil and flowering sweetclover.

But she goes back and forth remembering
gentle Atthis and in longing
she bites her tender mind”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“Eros once again limb-loosener whirls me sweetbitter, impossible to fight off, creature stealing up...I don't know what I should do: two states of mind in me...”
― Sappho

“Amor es gozar mucho y llorar luego mucho más.”
― Sappho

“Come to me now and loosen me
from blunt agony. Labor
and fill my heart with fire. Stand by me
and be my ally.”
― Sappho, The Complete Poems

“Eros, again now, the loosener of limbs troubles me,

Bittersweet, sly, uncontrollable creature….”
― Sappho