C.P. Cavafy Quotes

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that the road is long, full of adventure, full of knowledge.

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

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

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

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.

To certain people there comes a day when they must say the great Yes or the great No.

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.

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

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

If you are one of the truly elect, be careful how you attain your eminence.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Arriving there is what you are destined for

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.

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.

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today.

From my most unnoticed actions, my most veiled writing - from these alone will I be understood.

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

Try to keep them, poet, those erotic visions of yours, however few of them there are that can be stilled. Put them, half-hidden, in your lines.

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.