55 Best Sappho Quotes From The Ancient Lyric Poet

Sappho was an archaic Greek poet hailing from the island of Lesbos in the North Aegean administrative region of Greece.

She was widely thought to be one of the best lyric poets and was given names like the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess". Sappho was a prolific writer, in all probability composing around ten thousand lines.

Most of Sappho's poetry is currently lost, and what's existing has principally survived in fractional form; notable exceptions are the 'Ode to Aphrodite' and, therefore, the Tithonus poem. Further, as well as lyric poetry, ancient commentators claimed that the poet wrote elegiac and iambic poetry. Epigrams attributed to Sappho still exist; however, these are Hellenistical imitations of Sappho's vogue.

Little is understood of Sappho's life. She was from a flush family from Lesbos, although her parents' names are unknown. Ancient sources say that she had three brothers; Charaxos, Larichos, and Eurygios. The Suda mentions the names of all three brothers.

Two of them, Charaxos and Larichos, are mentioned within the Brothers poem discovered in 2014. She was exiled to Sicily around 600 BCE and was a continuing to figure till about 570 BCE. Later legends encompassing Sappho's love for the boatman Phaon and her death are unreliable.

Sappho's poetry was well-known and greatly loved through a lot of antiquity, and she was among the canon of nine lyric poets most reputable by students of Hellenistic Alexandria.

Sappho's poetry remains extraordinary, and her works still influence alternative writers. On the far side of her poetry, she is documented as an emblem of affection and need between ladies, with the English words sapphic and lesbian being derived from her own name and the name of her home island respectively.

Although her importance as a writer is evident, interpretations of her work are still colored and influenced by discussions of her gender.

Sappho's poems had a lot of inspirational and motivational quotes on love and beautiful women. Let's look at some beautiful Greek lyric poetry and poems. If you like these, you should read our Ancient Quotes and Sophocles Quotes.
 

Best Quotes By Sappho

Find your favorite Sappho love quote fragments here.

1. "Someone will remember us I say even in another time."

- Sappho.

2. "You may forget but let me tell you this: someone in some future time will think of us."

- Sappho, 'The Art Of Loving Women'.

3. "Their heart grew cold they let their wings down."

- Sappho, 'If Not, Winter'.

4. "There is no place for grief in a house which serves the muse."

- Sappho.

5. "What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful."

- Sappho.

6. "May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve."

- Sappho.

7. "Beauty endures only for as long as it can be seen; goodness, beautiful today, will remain so tomorrow."

- Sappho.

8. "Stars veil their beauty soon / Beside the glorious moon, / When her full silver light / Doth make the whole earth bright."

- Sappho.

9. "Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables."

- Sappho.

10. "Once again love drives me on, that loosener of limbs, bittersweet creature against which nothing can be done."

- Sappho.

11. "Without warning as a whirlwind swoops on an oak Love shakes my heart."

- Sappho.

12. "From all the offspring of the earth and heaven love is the most precious."

- Sappho.

13. "Love, like a mountain-wind upon an oak, falling upon me, shakes me leaf and bough."

- Sappho.

14. "Stand and face me, my love, and scatter the grace in your eyes."

- Sappho'.

15. “Although they are only breath, words which I command are immortal."

- Sappho.

Famous Sappho Quotes

Here is the translation of Sappho's original work which gave her wings to soar above all. See which of these fragments of her work in translation is your favorite.

16. "Frankly I wish I were dead. When she left, she wept."

- Sappho.

17. "Now you are a broken seal. A scarlet stain upon the earth."

- Sappho.

18. "How often I lament these things. But what can you do? No being that is human can escape old age.”

- Sappho.

19. "You came and I was longing for you. You cooled a heart that burned with desire."

- Sappho.

20. "With his venom irresistible and bittersweet that loosener of limbs, Love reptile-like strikes me down."

- Sappho.

21. "You may blame Aphrodite, soft as she is, she has almost killed me with love for that boy."

- Sappho.

22. "When wrath runs rampage in your heart you must hold still that rambunctious tongue!"

- Sappho.

23. "The moon and the Pleiades have set, it is midnight, and the time is passing, but I sleep alone."

- Sappho.

24. "All the violet tiaras, braided rosebuds, dill, and crocus twined around your young neck."

- Sappho.

25. "Virginity, virginity, when you leave me, where do you go? I am gone and never come back to you. I never return."

- Sappho.

26. "What I want to happen most of all in my crazy heart. Whom should I persuade (now again) to lead you back into her love? Who, O Sappho, is wronging you?"

- Sappho.

27. "I would rather see her lovely step and the motion of light on her face than chariots of Lydians."

- Sappho.

28. "Myrrh and cassia and frankincense were mingled. And all the elder women shouted aloud and all the men cried out a lovely song"

- Sappho.

29. "And her light stretches over salt sea equally and flower deep fields. And the beautiful dew is poured out and roses bloom and frail chervil and flowering sweetclover."

- Sappho.

30. "For her dress when you saw it stirred you. And I rejoice."

- Sappho.

Greek Poet Sappho Quotes

Don't forget to have a glance at Sappho's poetry and words from her original poems (in translation).

31. "Sweet is the god but still I am in agony and far from my strength."

- Sappho.

32. "A handsome man guards his image a while a good man will one day take on beauty."

- Sappho.

33. "Of course I am downcast and tremble with pity for my state when old age and wrinkles cover me."

- Sappho.

34. "Some say cavalry and others claim infantry or a fleet of long oars is the supreme sight on the black earth."

- Sappho.

35. "If you are my friend, stand up before me and scatter the grace that's in your eyes."

- Sappho.

36. "Raise high the roof beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom, taller far than a tall man."

- Sappho.

37. "I would not think to touch the sky with two arms."

- Sappho.

38. "No honey for me, if it comes with a bee."

- Sappho.

39. "I will let my body flow like water over the gentle cushions."

- Sappho.

40. "All the while, believe me, I prayed our night would last twice as long."

- Sappho.

41. "Death is an evil, the gods have judged, had it been good, they would die."

- Sappho.

42. "You are, I think, an evening star, the fairest of all the stars."

- Sappho.

43. "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.

44. "Don't be so boring, Phil. There are no rules in this game. There's nothing we can imagine that's not allowed. What's love is love."

- Sappho.

45. "That's what makes Phil a bad painter. He paints ordinary pictures that ordinary people will buy."

- Sappho.

Sappho Love Quotes

You can find Sappho's quotes from her original poems.

46. "Of course I care about Phil. But making love with you feels just right."

- Sappho.

47. "How is a woman making love to another woman any different than a woman making love to a man?"

- Sappho.

48. "It's like always a never. The sea breaking against the rocks. The one always wanting. It's the hardest thing loving someone who doesn't love you."

- Sappho.

49. "Come and be my girl. To feel your face and hear your footsteps, I'd give the world."

- Sappho.

50. "Just like it happens when two normal people get married?"

- Sappho.

51. "Power intoxicates men. When a man is intoxicated by alcohol, he can recover, but when intoxicated by power, he seldom recovers."

- Sappho.

52. "Dancing up the full moon round some fair new altar. Trample the soft blossoms of fine grass."

- Sappho.

53. "When anger spreads through the breath, guard thy tongue from barking idly."

- Sappho.

54. "He who is fair to look upon is good, and he who is good will soon be fair also."

- Sappho.

55. "But the act, called the sexual act, is not for depositing of seed."

- Sappho.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Sappho quotes, then why not take a look at Greek quotes, or Euripides quotes?