Constantine P. Cavafy Quotes

67 Sourced Quotes

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
I created you while I was happy, while I was sad,
with so many incidents, so many details. And, for me, the whole of you has been transformed into feeling.

Constantine P. Cavafy
It will be a great relief when a window opens.
But the windows are not there to be found —
or at least I cannot find them. And perhaps
it is better that I don't find them.
Perhaps the light will prove another tyranny.
Who knows what new things it will expose?

Constantine P. Cavafy
When they saw Patroklos dead
— so brave and strong, so young —
the horses of Achilles began to weep;
their immortal nature was upset deeply
by this work of death they had to look at.

Constantine P. Cavafy
The matter, says Mardonios, has gone too far,
the talk it has aroused must be stopped at all cost. —
So Julian goes to the church at Nicomedia,
a lector again, and there
with deep reverence he reads out loud
passages from the Holy Scriptures,
and everyone marvels at his Christian piety.

Constantine 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.

Constantine P. Cavafy
New places you will not find, you will not find another sea
The city will follow you.
You will roam the same streets.

Constantine P. Cavafy