Sappho was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by a lyre. In ancient times, Sappho was widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets and was given names such as the “Tenth Muse” and “The Poetess”. Most of Sappho’s poetry is now lost, and what is extant has mostly survived in fragmentary form; two notable exceptions are the “Ode to Aphrodite” and the Tithonus poem. These Sappho quotes will motivate you.
Best Sappho Quotes
- “May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve.” ~ Sappho
- “You may forget but
let me tell you
this: someone in
some future time
will think of us” ~ Sappho - “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.” ~ Sappho
- “Beauty endures only for as long as it can be seen; goodness, beautiful today, will remain so tomorrow.” ~ Sappho
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“What cannot be said will be wept.” ~ Sappho
- “Whatever one loves most is beautiful.” ~ Sappho
- “Someone, I tell you, in another time will remember us” ~ Sappho
- “Stars veil their beauty soon / Beside the glorious moon, / When her full silver light / Doth make the whole earth bright.” ~ Sappho
- “Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables.” ~ Sappho
- “Although only breath, words which I command are immortal.” ~ Sappho
- “Once again love drives me on, that loosener of limbs, bittersweet creature against which nothing can be done.” ~ Sappho
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“No honey for me, if it comes with a bee.” ~ Sappho
- “Stand and face me, my love, and scatter the grace in your eyes.” ~ Sappho
- “All the while, believe me, I prayed our night would last twice as long.” ~ Sappho
- “Love shook my heart/ Like the wind on the mountain/ Troubling the oak-trees” ~ Sappho
- “From all the offspring of the earth and heaven love is the most precious.” ~ Sappho
- “Now the Earth with many flowers puts on her spring embroidery” ~ Sappho
- “Love – bittersweet, irrepressible – loosens my limbs and I tremble.” ~ Sappho, Sappho quotes on love
- “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 -
“There is no place for grief in a house which serves the Muse.” ~ Sappho
- “The moon has set, and the Pleiades; it is midnight, and time passes, and I sleep alone.” ~ Sappho
- “Experience shows us Wealth unchaperoned by Virtue is never an innocuous neighbor.” ~ Sappho
- “I will let my body flow like water over the gentle cushions.” ~ Sappho
- “When anger spreads through the breath, guard thy tongue from barking idly.” ~ Sappho, Sappho quotes on anger
- “Mere air, these words, but delicious to hear.” ~ Sappho
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“In gold sandals/dawn like a thief / fell upon me.” ~ Sappho
- “I do not know what to do, my mind’s in two.” ~ Sappho
- “He who is fair to look upon is good, and he who is good will soon be fair also.” ~ Sappho
- “I know not what to do, my mind is divided” ~ Sappho
- “The evening star Is the most beautiful of all-stars” ~ Sappho
- “Death is an evil; the gods have so judged; had it been good, they would die.” ~ Sappho
- “Love, like a mountain-wind upon an oak, falling upon me, shakes me leaf and bough.” ~ Sappho
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“I would not think to touch the sky with two arms” ~ Sappho
- “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.” ~ Sappho
- “Without warning as a whirlwind swoops on an oak Love shakes my heart” ~ Sappho
- “With his venom irresistible and bittersweet that loosener of limbs, Love reptile-like strikes me down” ~ Sappho
- “Eros harrows my heart: wild gales sweeping desolate mountains, uprooting oaks.” ~ Sappho
- “Dancing up the full moon
Round some fair new altar
Trample the soft blossoms of fine grass.” ~ Sappho - “I took my lyre and said: come now, my heavenly tortoise shell: become a speaking instrument.” ~ Sappho
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“How love the limb-loosener sweeps me away” ~ Sappho
- “Death is an ill; ’tis thus the Gods decide: / For had death been a boon, the Gods had died.” ~ Sappho
- “Hesperus bringing together All that the morning star scattered.” ~ Sappho
- “If you are squeamish
Don’t prod the beach rubble.” ~ Sappho - “Death must be an evil and the gods agree; for why else would they live forever?” ~ Sappho
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“Eros seizes and shakes my very soul like the wind on the mountain shaking ancient oaks.” ~ Sappho
- “For some the fairest thing on the dark earth is Thermopylae,
And the Spartan phalanx lowering lances to die.” ~ Sappho - “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.” ~ Sappho
- “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!” ~ Sappho
- “Raise high the roof-beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom, taller far than a tall man.” ~ Sappho
- “The Moon and Pleiades have set, / Midnight is nigh, / The time is passing, passing, yet / Alone I lie.” ~ Sappho
- “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.” ~ Sappho
- “The moon is set and the Pleiades; Middle of the night, time passes by, I lie alone.” ~ Sappho
