C.P. Cavafy Quotes

On this page you can find the TOP of C.P. Cavafy's best quotes! We hope you will find some sayings from Poet C.P. Cavafy's in our collection, which will inspire you to new achievements! There are currently 2 quotes on this page collected since April 29, 1863! Share our collection of quotes with your friends on social media so that they can find something to inspire them!
All quotes by C.P. Cavafy: more...
  • From my most unnoticed actions, my most veiled writing - from these alone will I be understood.

    "Hidden Things". Poem by C.P. Cavafy,
  • When you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that the road is long, full of adventure, full of knowledge.

  • The days of the future stand in front of us Like a line of candles all alight Golden and warm and lively little candles.

    Constantine P. Cavafy, “Candles”
  • Nero wasn't worried at all when he heard the utterance of the Delphic Oracle: "Beware the age of seventy-three." Plenty of time to enjoy himself still. He's thirty. The deadline the god has given him is quite enough to cope with future dangers.

    "Constantine P. Cavafy: Collected Poems". Book by Constantine Cavafy, p. 87, 2009.
  • To certain people there comes a day when they must say the great Yes or the great No.

  • And if you can't shape your life the way you want, at least try as much as you can not to degrade it.

    C. P. Cavafy (2015). “Selected Poems by C.P. Cavafy”, p.24, Princeton University Press
  • Give me artificial flowers - porcelain and metal glories - neither fading nor decaying, forms unaging. Flowers of the splendid gardens of another place, where Forms and Styles and Knowledge dwell. I love flowers made of glass or gold, true Art's true gifts, their painted hues more beautiful than nature's, worked in nacre and enamel, with perfect leaves and branches.

  • I'm practically broke and homeless. This fatal city, Antioch, has devoured all my money: this fatal city with its extravagant life.

    Constantine P. Cavafy, “To Have Taken The Trouble”
  • A month passes by and brings another month. Easy to guess what lies ahead: all of yesterday's boredom. And tomorrow ends up no longer like tomorrow.

  • My life has been awaiting you. Your footfall was my own heart's beat.

  • From all I did and all I said let no one try to find out who I was.

  • And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you. Wise as you have become, with so much experience, you must already have understood what these Ithacas mean.

  • And from this marvellous pan-Hellenic expedition, triumphant, brilliant in every way, celebrated on all sides, glorified incomparable, we emerged: the great new Hellenic world.

  • That we've broken their statues, that we've driven them out of their temples, doesn't mean at all that the gods are dead. O land of Ionia, they're still in love with you, their souls still keep your memory.

    C. P. Cavafy (2015). “Selected Poems by C.P. Cavafy”, p.17, Princeton University Press
  • What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today.

    Constantine P. Cavafy, “Waiting For The Barbarians”
  • If you are one of the truly elect, be careful how you attain your eminence.

  • On hearing about powerful love, respond, be moved like an aesthete. Only, fortunate as you've been, remember how much your imagination created for you.

  • Have Ithaka always in your mind. Your arrival there is what you are destined for. But don't in the least hurry the journey.

    Constantine P. Cavafy, “Ithaca”
  • The holy Cross goes forward; it brings joy and consolation to every quarter where Christians live; and these God-fearing people, elated, stand in their doorways and greet it reverently, the strength, the salvation of the universe, the Cross.

    Constantine P. Cavafy, “A Great Procession Of Priests And Laymen”
  • Arriving there is what you are destined for

    C. P. Cavafy (2015). “Selected Poems by C.P. Cavafy”, p.19, Princeton University Press
  • He wasn't completely wrong, poor old Gemistus (let Lord Andronicus and the patriarch suspect him if they like), in wanting us, telling us to become pagan once again.

  • When you set out for Ithaca, ask that your way be long

    Constantine P. Cavafy, “Ithaca”
  • The frivolous can call me frivolous. I've always been most punctilious about important things. And I insist that no one knows better than I do the Holy Fathers, or the Scriptures, or the Canons of the Councils.

    Constantine P. Cavafy, “A Byzantine Nobleman In Exile Composing Verses”
  • Roses by the head, jasmine at the feet so appear the longings that have passed without being satisfied, not one of them granted a night of sensual pleasure, or one of its radiant mornings.

  • What shall become of us without any barbarians? Those people were a kind of solution.

  • Body, remember not only how much you were loved, not only the beds you lay on, but also those desires glowing openly in eyes that looked at you, trembling for you in voices.

    C. P. Cavafy (2015). “Selected Poems by C.P. Cavafy”, p.39, Princeton University Press
  • Don’t mourn your luck that’s failing now, work gone wrong, your plans all proving deceptive — don’t mourn them uselessly. As one long prepared, and graced with courage, say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving. Above all, don’t fool yourself, don’t say it was a dream, your ears deceived you: don’t degrade yourself with empty hopes like these.

    Constantine P. Cavafy, “The God Abandons Anthony”
  • Of what's to come the wise perceive things about to happen. Sometimes during moments of intense study their hearing's troubled: the hidden sound of things approaching reaches them, and they listen reverently, while in the street outside the people hear nothing whatsoever.

  • One candle is enough. Its gentle light will be more suitable, will be more gracious when the Shades arrive, the Shades of Love.

  • Guard, O my soul, against pomp and glory. And if you cannot curb your ambitions, at least pursue them hesitantly, cautiously. And the higher you go, the more searching and careful you need to be.

    C. P. Cavafy (2015). “Selected Poems by C.P. Cavafy”, p.14, Princeton University Press
Page of
We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 2 quotes from the Poet C.P. Cavafy, starting from April 29, 1863! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!
C.P. Cavafy quotes about: