Quotes for All
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. C.P. Cavafy
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. C.P. Cavafy
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. C.P. Cavafy
Speak not of guilt, speak not of responsibility. When the Regiment of the Senses parades by, with music, and with banners; when the senses shiver and shudder, it is only a fool and and an irreverent person that will keep his distance, who will not embrace the good cause, marching towards the conquest of pleasures … Read more
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, … Read more
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. C.P. Cavafy
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. C.P. Cavafy
I’m practically broke and homeless. This fatal city, Antioch, has devoured all my money: this fatal city with its extravagant life. C.P. Cavafy
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today. C.P. Cavafy
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. C.P. Cavafy