Ancient Greece has inspired hundreds of quotes! Here are 100+1 quotes about Greece, to get you in the mood before you visit!
What makes quotes about Greece so inspiring?
People all around the world like reading inspirational quotes. These short phrases can remind us of the possibilities that life has to offer. Or they can remind us of the power of words – a few carefully chosen words can have a profound impact on someone’s life.
Quotes can also be inspiring because they offer a different perspective on familiar topics. They often show how other people have dealt with difficult situations.
Ultimately, whether or not a quote is inspiring depends on the individual, and what resonates with them.
There are dozens of quotes for Greek culture, quotes for Greece and the Greek isles, and quotes relevant to Ancient Greece and Greek mythology. Here are some of the best Greece quotes!
Quotes about the beauty of Greece
Greece is an amazingly beautiful country! The diverse landscapes, golden sand beaches, rocky mountains and ancient sites are really picture-perfect. Here are a few quotes celebrating Greece’s beauty:
Greece – The feeling of being lost in time and geography with months and years hazily sparkling ahead in a prospect of inconjecturable magic.
– Patrick Leigh Fermor, English writer and scholar
Greece was a muse. It inspired creativity in magical ways that I can’t even begin to understand or explain.
– Joe Bonamassa, American guitarist
The problem with Greece is that she’s just too beautiful.
– Dimitra Tzanos, Greek artist
Greece is a good place to look at the moon, isn’t it.
– Kari Hesthamar, Norwegian author
The light of Greece opened my eyes, penetrated my pores, expanded my whole being.
– Henry Miller, American writer and artist
I want to have an ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ experience where I drop off the face of the planet and move to Greece.
– Jennifer Hyman, American entrepreneur
Today, to walk along the pebbled pathways of a traditional Greek mountain village or the marbled streets of an ancient acropolis is to step back in time. To meander at a leisurely pace through these island chains by boat is to be captivated by the same dramatic landscapes and enchanted islets that make the myths of ancient Greece so compelling. To witness the Mediterranean sun setting on the turquoise sea is to receive one of life’s greatest blessings.
– Laura Brooks, American writer
Greece is a good place for rebirths.
– Judith Martin, American author and columnist
It takes a lifetime for someone to discover Greece, but it only takes an instant to fall in love with her.
– Henry Miller
Also read: Greek Words To Learn
Quotes about Athens and the Parthenon
Athens, the Greek capital, is known for its long history, the Acropolis, the Parthenon. Here are a few quotes about Athens:
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts and eloquence, native to famous wits.
– John Milton, English poet and intellectual
I want to see the Parthenon by moonlight.
– Daphne Du Maurier, English novelist and playwright
How great are the dangers I face to win a good name in Athens.
– Alexander the Great, King of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon
In the world over, the very name of our country is immediately associated with the Parthenon.
– Melina Mercouri, Greek actress and politician
Earth proudly wears the Parthenon as the best gem upon her zone.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher and lecturer
The Greeks had invented democracy, built the Acropolis and called it a day.
– David Sedaris, American comedian and author
There are no such things as the Elgin Marbles.
– Melina Mercouri
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
– Socrates, Ancient Greek philosopher
Quotes about the Greek islands
The Greek islands, famous for their white-and-blue houses, have inspired many quotes about Greece. Here are a few:
My God, how much blue you spend so we cannot see you!
– Odysseus Elytis, Greek poet awarded with the Nobel prize
In every island of the Aegean Sea are found abundant traces of a vast prehistoric empire.
– James Theodore Bent
The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece! Where burning Sappho loved and sung, Where grew the arts of war and peace, Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung! Eternal summer gilds them yet, But all, except their sun, is set.
– Lord Byron, English poet
Gradually the magic of the island [Corfu] settled over us as gently and clingingly as pollen.
– Gerald Durrell, British naturalist and writer
Greece has got something like 1,400 islands. There is so much of Greece you can’t know even if you’re Greek. It’s sprinkled out all around the edge of the Aegean, all over the place. It’s already a secret place wherever you go, even if it’s somewhere huge like Athens or Corinth. The place enchanted me.
– Joanna Lumley, English actress
Quotes about Mykonos and Santorini
Mykonos and Santorini are two of the most famous Greek islands. Here are some quotes about them:
Unless you have seen the houses of Mykonos, you can’t pretend to be an architect. Whatever architecture has to say, it is said here.
– Le Corbusier, Swiss-French pioneer of modern architecture
The Greek Isles present a collage of diverse landscapes and customs. Mykonos is fun-loving, with lively tavernas and populated beaches. Delos is stoic, protecting the ruins of its ancient sanctuaries in solemn dignity. Milos is magical, with its volcanic rock formations and stunning village vistas.
– Laura Brooks
She perched on her windowsill, gazing at the lurid sun soaking into the Caldera, trying to appreciate it even though she couldn’t have it. Why did she always feel she had to do something in the face of beauty?
– Ann Brashares, American novelist – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
According to some theories, the legendary Atlantis said to have sunk beneath the sea in a great cataclysm, is in actuality the Greek Island of Santorini.
– Laura Brooks
Her dress sparkled like the stars that blanketed the Mykonos night sky.
– Anthea Syrokou, Australian author
On a summer night, I have sat on the balcony drinking Ouzo, watching the ghosts of Greek Heroes sailing past, listening to the rustle of their sail cloths and the gentle lapping of their oars… and lain alongside Pythagoras watching him study the myriad of triangles in the constellations twinkling above us. Whether it was Crete, the heat, the Ouzo, or a combination, it is unequalled anywhere other than Santorini, in my humble opinion.
– Phil Simpkin, English author
Greece quotes about happiness
Happiness is what everyone is striving for! Here are a few inspirational quotes:
You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
– Epicurus, ancient Greek philosopher
I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.
– Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek author – Zorba the Greek
Knowledge creates happiness.
– Plato, ancient Greek philosopher
The less you want, the richer you are. The more you need in order to be happy, the more miserable you’ll be.
– Yanni, Greek American composer
Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.
– Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher
Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean Sea.
– Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
– Aristotle
Of all things which wisdom provides to make life entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
– Epicurus
The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.
– John F. Kennedy, American President
Quotes by famous Greek philosophers
Greece is well known for its long history, and the ancient Greek philosophers. Let’s have a look at some wonderful ancient Greek quotes by some of these wise men:
Everything flows.
– Heraclitus, ancient Greek philosopher
Nature does nothing without purpose or in vain.
– Aristotle
Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.
– Epicurus
There is nothing permanent except change.
– Heraclitus
Man is the measure of all things.
– Protagoras, ancient Greek philosopher
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
– Aristotle
Beware the barrenness of a busy life.
– Socrates, ancient Greek philosopher
For persuasion, reasoning is far stronger than gold.
– Democritus, ancient Greek philosopher
It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
– Epictetus, ancient Greek philosopher
The beginning is the most important part of the work.
– Plato
The unexamined life is not worth living.
– Socrates
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
– Epicurus
Ancient Greek quotes about wisdom, education and knowledge
The ancient Greek philosophers had lots to say about wisdom, knowledge and education:
The ancient Oracle said that I was the wisest of all the Greeks. It is because I alone, of all the Greeks, know that I know nothing.
– Socrates
For the wise is easy to go anywhere. Because the whole world is home for a good soul.
– Democritus
There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
– Socrates
There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
– Aristotle
I can’t teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.
– Socrates
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
– Aristotle
Wisdom begins in wonder.
– Socrates
Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.
– Aristotle
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.
– Aristotle
Ancient Greece Quotes
And now, let’s check a few contemporary quotes about Ancient Greece!
In many ways we are all sons and daughters of ancient Greece.
– Nia Vardalos, Canadian actress, director, producer and screenwriter
We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our arts, have their root in Greece.
– Percy Bysshe Shelley, English Romantic poet
If you go back to the Greeks and Romans, they talk about all three – wine, food, and art – as a way of enhancing life.
– Robert Mondavi, American winemaker
Greece appears to be the fountain of knowledge; Rome of elegance.
– Samuel Johnson, English writer and biographer
The center of Western culture is Greece, and we have never lost our ties with the architectural concepts of that ancient civilization.
– Stephen Gardiner, English bishop and politician
Quotes on Greek studies and language
Greece is the birthplace of democracy, and not only. Ancient Greeks studied sciences such as philosophy, physics, astronomy, geometry, and many others. Let’s see a few more quotes about Ancient Greece and Greek studies:
Damned Greek, you found everything; philosophy, geometry, physics, astronomy… you left nothing for us.
– Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, German playwright, poet, and philosopher
Without Greek studies there is no education.
– Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer
If in the library of your house you do not have the works of the ancient Greek writers, then you live in a house with no light.
– George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and critic
I have never come across someone who could inspire more respect than the Greek philosophers.
– Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher and cultural critic
What the mind and the heart is for a human being, Greece is for humanity.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, playwright and novelist
The language of the gods is the Greek language.
– Cicero, Roman statesman and philosopher
Give me a word, any word, and I’ll show you that the root of that word is Greek.
– Every Greek person, ever
It’s all Greek to me!
– Everyone who’s tried to learn Greek!
Quotes for Greek culture and Greek people
Ah, the Greeks! Enthusiastic, passionate, heroic, warm-blooded. Let’s have a look at some famous quotes for Greek culture:
The Greek might admit that honesty is the best policy, but he tries everything else first.
– Will Durant, American writer, historian, and philosopher
Enthusiasm is a wonderful thing. In South America, they throw flowers to you. In Greece, Greeks throw themselves.
– Melina Mercouri
The world is the expanding Greece and Greece is the shrinking world.
– Victor Hugo, French writer
Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks!
– Winston Churchill, British statesman
In Greece wise men speak and fools decide.
– George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist
There are two kinds of people. Greeks, and everyone else who wish they was Greek.
– My big fat Greek wedding
You know, it is said that we Greeks are a fervent and warm-blooded breed. Well, let me tell you something – it is true.
– Melina Mercouri
Get ready for wine, raki, and getting hand-fed by strangers.
– Anthony Bourdain, American celebrity chef, author and travel documentarian
In Greece, people have a quality of life. People here live beautifully.
– Otto Rehhagel, German football coach and player
If Greece is destroyed completely, an olive tree, a vine, and a boat will remain. That is enough to rebuild her from the beginning.
– Odysseus Elytis
Quotes about the Greek Gods and ancient Greek culture
Ancient Greeks believed in the 12 Gods of Mount Olympus, like Zeus, Athena, Apollo and Poseidon. They built luxurious temples to worship them, and organized various athletic and artistic events. Here are a few quotes about the Greek Gods:
In a way, it’s nice to know that there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong.
– Rick Riordan, American author
Greece is the home of the gods; they may have died but their presence still makes itself felt. The gods were of human proportion: they were created out of the human spirit.
– Henry Miller
If I’d been born in ancient Greece, I’d worship Zeus and Aphrodite.
– Richard Dawkins, British evolutionary biologist and author
I descended from the top of Olympus, and, a God in a human shape, I surveyed the earth. ’Twere an endless task to enumerate how great an amount of guilt was everywhere discovered.
– Henry Thomas Riley, English translator and lexicographer
You can’t swing a cat in Ancient Greece without hitting one of Zeus’s ex-girlfriends.
– Rick Riordan
Experts in ancient Greek culture say that people back then didn’t see their thoughts as belonging to them. When ancient Greeks had a thought, it occurred to them as a god or goddess giving an order. Apollo was telling them to be brave. Athena was telling them to fall in love. Now people hear a commercial for sour cream potato chips and rush out to buy, but now they call this free will. At least the ancient Greeks were being honest.
– Chuck Palahniuk, American journalist and novelist
Greek quotes about travel
Travel, adventure, wanderlust… It’s not just Odysseus who liked to travel. Here are a few Greek sayings about travel:
I know that each one of us travels to love alone, alone to faith and to death.
– Yiannis Ritsos, Greek poet
Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.
– Lawrence Durrell
Experience, travel – these are an education in themselves.
– Euripides, Ancient Greek tragedian
As you set out for Ithaca, hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery.
– Konstantinos Kavafis, Greek poet
We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.
– Aristotle Onassis, Greek tycoon
I have always been consumed with one desire; to touch and see as much as possible of the earth and the sea before I die.
– Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
Greek quotes about fear, passion and freedom
Is fear holding you back from doing the things you want? Have a look at these inspirational quotes, and you may see things under a different light!
I hope nothing – I fear nothing – I am free.
– Nikos Kazantzakis
Never start a job, a battle, or a relationship, if the fear of losing overshadows the prospect of success.
– Aristotle Onassis
A man needs a little madness, or else he never dares cut the rope and be free.
– Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
All you need is passion. If you have a passion for something, you’ll create the talent.
– Yanni
Reach what you cannot.
– Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco
Various quotes about Greece
Finally, here are a few more quotes about Greece:
I sometimes think that only being torn to pieces can keep us whole.
– Yiannis Ritsos
Alors, c’ est la guerre! (Well, then it’s war).
– Ioannis Metaxas, Greek Prime Minister – Here is more information about this historic phrase: OXI day in Greece
Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.
– Nikos Kazantzakis
The best things in life, the very best things happen unexpectedly.
– Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again – A fun musical, one of the many movies about Greece
FAQs about famous Greek quotes
Here are some popular questions about quotes of Greece:
What is a famous Greek quote?
Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher, famously said: Everything flows.
What is Greece known for?
Greece is known for its long history, its famous philosophers, the ancient temples and its beautiful islands. It’s also known as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of democracy.
What is a quote about the Parthenon?
Melina Mercouri, the famous Greek actress and politician, said: In the world over, the very name of our country is immediately associated with the Parthenon.
Why is Greece so special?
Greece offers a unique combination of long history, beautiful landscapes, lovely beaches, warm people and great food.
What is a quote by Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher?
One of the best quotes by Aristotle is: Happiness depends upon ourselves.
More articles about Greece
And now that you are inspired to travel to Greece, have a look at these other articles:
- The Athens Original Marathon
- Interesting facts about the Greek flag
- The origins of the Olympic Games
- Coffee in Greece
- Best time to visit the Greek islands
- 20 popular Greek swear words
- Best beaches in Rhodes
- The evil eye in Greece
Hi! I’m Vanessa from Athens. I hope you’ve enjoyed these quotes about Greece! If there are any more you like which I haven’t included, feel free to post them right below. For more information about Greece, please follow my FB page and FB group.