masses of quotes about greece

137 Inspiring Quotes About Greece, Greek Quotes & Greek IG Captions

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Looking for the best quotes about Greece to go with photos from your dream holiday in Greece or beautiful Greece captions to fuel your wanderlust? I understand 🙂

I first visited Greece when I was 14 years old. Yes. I was one of 1,000 hormonal teenagers who jumped off our “school cruise” to descend on Athens, Santorini and Mykonos! Those poor locals 🤣

Greece charmed me as much then as it still does today after many more visits, and I’m not done with Greece yet! In fact, I’ll be back there again this summer – I can almost smell the moussaka now 😘

Modern Greece is one of Europe’s most beautiful destinations, with beautiful towns, cities, islands, and villages. The whitewashed coastal villages, cobbled streets, delicious food, hidden coves, splendid white sand beaches, rich history, and architecture are stunning and unforgettable.

If you love Greece too, I’ve gathered all my favourite Greek quotes for you, including quotes from Greek philosophers, Greece Instagram captions and even a few funny Greece captions.

I hope you find these quotes about Greece helpful, but don’t be surprised if it makes you want to book a trip to Greece immediately!

Greek IG Captions

Let’s get started with some short and snappy captions you can steal for your beautiful Instagram posts 🙂

Lost in the charm of ancient ruins and modern blues 🏛️💙 #GreekAdventures #Wanderlust


Sunsets over Santorini, dreams come true in shades of blue 🌅💫 #SantoriniMagic #GreekSunset


I’m lost in the streets of Athens, where history meets street art 🏛️🎨 #AthensExploration #StreetArtLove


Greek vibes and olive oil dreams 🫒✨ #OliveOilLife #GreekDreams


Chasing sunsets and myths in the land of gods 🌄🏛️ #SunsetChaser #GreekMythology


Island-hopping adventures and sea breeze therapy 🚤🌊 #IslandLife #GreekEscape


In a love affair with Greek cuisine – Opa! 🇬🇷🍽️ #GreekFoodLove #OpaMoments


A day without laughter is a day wasted – Greek style! 😄🇬🇷 #GreekLaughter #LiveLaughLove


Wearing the colours of the Aegean, living the Greek dream 💙🏝️ #AegeanDream #BlueandWhite


Exploring the Acropolis, where history whispers and stones tell tales 🏛️🔍 #AcropolisAdventures #GreekHistory


Sipping on sunshine and ouzo, because life is better in Greece ☀️🍹 #GreekSunshine #OuzoMoments


Dancing through Mykonos streets like Zorba the Greek 💃🕺 #MykonosDance #GreekVibes


From Zeus to Zorba, Greece is where legends live on 🏛️🔱 #GreekLegends #MythicalJourney”


Cheers to the simple pleasures – Greek coffee and seaside views ☕🌊 #GreekCoffeeLove #SeasideSerenity


Hiking in the footsteps of gods, surrounded by nature’s wonders 🌿🏞️ #HikingInGreece #NatureEscape


Finding paradise in every corner of Crete – sun, sea, and olives! 🌊🏝️🫒 #CreteParadise #GreekGetaway


Sun-kissed and Santorini blissed – where every moment is a postcard 🌞📸 #SantoriniBliss #PostcardMoments


Greek islands are like a box of chocolates – each one is a sweet surprise! 🍫🏝️ #IslandHopping #SweetSurprises


Live your myth in the heart of Athens, where every step is a story 🏛️📖 #AthensMoments #UrbanExploration


Sunshine mixed with a little hurricane – Greek island life in a nutshell ☀️🌪️ #IslandLife #GreekAdventure


Sailing through the blue dreams of the Aegean, one island at a time ⛵💙 #AegeanSailing #IslandDreaming


Greek sunsets are proof that no matter what happens, every day can end beautifully 🌅💖 #GreekSunsets #BeautyEveryday


Living that Greek island dream – sun, sea, and soulful moments 🏝️☀️ #IslandDream #GreekSoul


In the embrace of ancient olive trees, finding peace that lasts for centuries 🫒🌳 #OliveTreeLove #GreekPeace


Kalimera from the land where blue meets history, and myths come to life 💙🏛️ #GoodMorningGreece #MythicalLand


Ouzo in hand, toes in the sand – living the Greek way of life! 🍹🏖️ #BeachLife #GreekWay


Every corner of Greece tells a story, and every story feels like magic 📖✨ #GreekMagic #StorybookGreece”


Sunset strolls in Oia – where the sky meets the sea in a canvas of colors 🌅🎨 #OiaSunset #GreekCanvas


In the shadow of ancient columns, feeling the heartbeat of history 🏛️❤️ #HeartbeatOfHistory #AncientGreece


Greek moments are like souvenirs for the soul – collect them all! 🇬🇷🧡 #GreekSouvenirs #SoulfulMoments

The Best Quotes About Greece

The first set of quotes about Greece includes the most famous quotes praising the country’s beauty. Let’s jump straight into them. 

Henry Miller quotes about greece over pink house with bright blue door and window shutters
One of the best inspiring Greece quotes, from Henry Miller

“It takes a lifetime for someone to discover Greece, but it only takes an instant to fall in love with her – Henry Miller.


“Greece was a muse. It inspired creativity in magical ways that I can’t even begin to understand or explain” Joe Bonamassa.


“Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks” Winston Churchill


“Greece is the home of Gods. They may have died, but their presence still makes itself felt” Henry Miller.


“Greece is the most magical place on Earth” Kylie Bax.


“Get ready for wine, raki, and getting hand-fed by strangers” Anthony Bourdain.


“This is how I imagined Goddess Hera to be: strong, pure, and vigilant. I have never encountered any other artist able to give me such a strong sense of the divine!” François Mitterrand.

Acropolis and Parthenon Quotes

The Parthenon is perhaps the most iconic Greek building and one of the world’s most famous architectural landmarks. It’s no real surprise that there are so many quotes about the Acropolis and the Parthenon. 

Quote about the Acropolis overlaid on image of the Acropolis

“In the world over, the very name of our country is immediately associated with the Parthenon” Melina Mercouri


“The Parthenon is really only a farmyard over which someone put a roof; colonnades and sculptures were added because there were people in Athens who happened to be working and wanted to express themselves” Pablo Picasso


“The Greeks had invented democracy, built the Acropolis, and called it a day” David Sedaris


“The Parthenon without the marbles is like a smile with a tooth missing” Neil Kinnock


“We approached Athens from the north in the early twilight, climbing a hill. When we reached its peak, we were dazzled to look down and see the Acropolis struck by one beam of the setting sun as if posing for a picture” Donald Hall

“I want to see the Parthenon by moonlight” Daphne du Maurier


“Earth proudly wears the Parthenon as the best gem upon her zone” Ralph Waldo Emerson


“There are men whose manners have the same essential splendor as the simple and awful scripture on the friezes of the Parthenon, and the remains of the earliest Greek art” Ralph Waldo Emerson


“You must understand what the Parthenon Marbles mean to us. They are our pride. They are our sacrifices. They are our noblest symbol of excellence. They are a tribute to the democratic philosophy. They are our aspirations and our name. They are the essence of Greekness” Melina Mercouri

Famous Quotes About Greece

QUOTES ABOUT GREECE PATRICK LEIGH

“Greece – The feeling of being lost in time and geography with months and years hazily sparkling ahead in a prospect of un-conjecturable magic” Patrick Leigh


“The mention of Greece fills the mind with the most exalted sentiments and arouses in our bosoms the best feelings of which our nature is capable” James Monroe

Greece Captions for Instagram

Are these short quotes about Greece going to be your perfect Greece quotes for Instagram? If you’re seeking inspiration for your Greek holiday, you’re welcome to copy these Greece Instagram captions. 

“It’s all Greek to me. Greece is a good place to look at the moon, isn’t it?” Kari Hesthamar


“I want Rome and the Coliseum, the Acropolis, Athens; I want beauty, and the flame of life” Eleanora Duse

One of the best quotes about Greece by Henry Miller overlaid on an image of the Acropolis

“The light of Greece opened my eyes, penetrated my pores, expanded my whole being” Henry Miller


“The world is expanding Greece and Greece is the shrinking world” Victor Hugo


“The island has magical landscapes and a special energy coming from the sea, the winds, and the land that can’t be found elsewhere” Eugenie Niarchos


“I like reading, free diving, and hiking. But my favorite thing to do is travel anywhere in Greece. I love everything about that place” Max Irons

75 Greece Puns and Jokes That Will Make You Laugh

“You have your brush; you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go” Nikos Kazantzakis

QUOTES ABOUT GREECE ODYSSEUS

“If you deconstruct Greece, you will, in the end, see an olive tree, a grapevine, and a boat remain. That is, with as much you reconstruct her” Odysseus


“Right now, I’d love to be sitting on a Greek island somewhere because of being Greek American, eating great octopus salad and some fantastic lamb. Or sipping a little ouzo. I think the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest—lots of nuts, vegetables, fruits, fresh fish, lean meats, yogurt” Cat Cora

Short Quotes About Greece

If you want to keep your Greece sayings sweet and straightforward, you might like to use some of these short quotes from Greece: 

“Greece is too old to die” Lito Seizani


“Greece is a good place for rebirths” Judith Martin


“My favorite power food is Greek yogurt and honey” Misty May Treanor


“At Athens, wise men propose, and fools dispose” Alcuin


Quotes About Greece – Unknown Source

INSTAGRAM CAPTIONS ABOUT GREECE ANON

“You know you’re in Greece when you feel a unique, indescribable, out-of-this-world euphoria being there and deep sadness when you’re leaving.”


“The problem with Greece is that she’s just too beautiful.”


“And then God said, let there be Greece.”


“Greece is more than a country. It is an experience.”

Quotes About Greece from Poets

“Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence” John Milton


“Be afraid of the Greeks bearing gifts” Virgil


“We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our arts have their root in Greece” Percy Bysshe Shelley


“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


“Let there be light said Liberty, and from sunrise, like the sea, Athens arose.” Percy Bysshe Shelley


“Such is the aspect of this shore; “Tis Greece, but living Greece no more! So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, We start, for the soul is wanting there” Lord Byron


“The sea was sapphire-colored, and the sky burned like a heated opal through the air. We hoisted sail; the wind was blowing fair For the blue lands to the eastward lie. From the seep prox, I marked with quickening eye Zakynthos, every olive grove and creek. The only sounds: – when ‘gan the West to burn, and the red sun upon the seas to ride, I stood upon the soil of Greece at last” Oscar Wilde (Impression du Voyage).

Quotes About Greek Culture and History

One of the world’s earliest civilizations, Greece’s culture, history and traditions are fascinating to explore and discover. You could spend years in Greece and still not learn everything about this stunning country, its legends and folklore.

These inspiring quotes about Greece’s culture, history and traditions allow us to peep into Ancient and Modern Greece. I hope these quotes about Greek culture help inspire you to appreciate this beautiful country.

Quote about Corfu overlaid on image of Corfu Island

“My childhood in Corfu shaped my life. If I had the craft of Merlin, I would give every child the gift of my childhood” Gerald Durrell


“Europe holds a great history of philosophy from Greece until today. I read all those books and see these buildings, and I think of where I stand when I design my architecture” Tadao Ando


“In every island of the Aegean Sea are found abundant traces of the vast prehistoric empire” James Theodore Bent


“How great are the dangers I face to win a good name in Athens?” Alexander the Great

More Sayings About Greek Culture

Greek food in bowls on a table overlaid with a Greek food quote

“Greeks use food for everyday gatherings. Cooking is a big part of our lives. We want to show people our hospitality” Ioanna Hawkins


“In many ways, we are all sons and daughters of ancient Greece”  Nia Vardalos


“In Greece, people have a quality of life. People here live beautifully” Otto Rehhagel


“We’ve come full circle, but the best remains the heart of the city, the greatest center of the greatest city, our Acropolis, where our Christmas tree is lighted” Daniel Patrick Moynihan


“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


“The spirit of Greece, passing through and ascending above the world, hath so animated universal nature, that the very rocks and woods, the very torrents and wilds burst forth with it” Walter Savage Landor


“Among all peoples, the Greeks have dreamt life’s dream most beautifully”  Wolfgang Goethe


“The people of Crete, unfortunately, make more history than they consume locally”  Hector Munro


“Greece appears to be the fountain of knowledge; Rome of elegance”  Samuel Johnson


“It is a shame to be called educated those who do not study ancient Greek writers”  Francois Rabelais

Quotes About Travel and Greece

When planning a European trip, Greece is an obvious choice to add to your schedule. And once you’ve been there, Greece will worm its way into your heart, and you will want to go to Greece time and time again. 

These quotes about Greece travel will show how much people love Greece!

“Gods, not wanting to deprive the Greeks of the truth, they gave them poetry” Joseph Joubert.

quote about Greece and friends over image of friends gathering at a dinner table

“In Greece, we’re too poor to go to psychiatrists – we have friends instead” Melina Mercouri

Inspiring Quotes About Greek Islands

“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


“My favorite place to write is at my desk in my house in the mountains of Crete. I produce more there because one big distraction is missing: the Internet” Neal Asher


“I wonder if Socrates and Plato took a house on Crete during the summer” Woody Allen


“Gradually, the magic of the island Corfu settled over us as gently and clingingly as pollen” Gerald Durrell

“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


“The Aegean sea washes Greece on two sides: first, the side that faces towards the east and stretches from Sunium, towards the north as far as the Thermaean Gulf and Thessaloniceia, a Macedonian city; and secondly, the side that faces towards the south, I mean the Macedonian country, extending from Thessaloniceia as far as the Strymon” Strabo

Quotes About Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the 1,400 Greek islands, the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and a popular holiday destination. 

“There is a kind of flame in Crete – let us call it “soul” – something more powerful than either life or death. There is pride, obstinacy, valor, and together with these, something else inexpressible and imponderable, something which makes you rejoice that you are a human being, and at the same time tremble” Nikos Kazantzakis


“I knew that no matter what door you knock on in a Cretan village, it will be opened for you. A meal will be served in your honor, and you will sleep between the best sheets in the house. In Crete, the stranger is still the unknown God. Before him, all doors and all hearts are opened” Nikos Kazantzakis


“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 unequaled anywhere other than Santorini, in my humble opinion” Phil Simpkin


“I like the thought that what we are to do on this earth is embellished it for its greater beauty so that oncoming generations can look back to the shapes we leave here and get the same thrill that I get in looking back at theirs – at the Parthenon, at Chartres Cathedral” Philip Johnson


“As you set out for Ithaca, hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery” Konstantinos Kavafis


“What I liked about Greece was the impressive force of the language itself, unconfined by dictionaries, spoken in the streets, in cafés, and in the country” Peter Levi


“I’m looking at the sea on the wall, and even though it’s a copy of a copy of the Aegean, I wish you would grab me and take me to Greece” Analicia Sotelo


“Of the many smells of Athens, two seem to be the most characteristic – that of garlic, bold and deadly like acetylene gas. And that of dust, soft and warm and caressing like tweed” Evelyn Waugh

Mykonos Quotes

One of Greece’s most famous and most visited places is the stunning island of Mykonos in the northern Cyclades. 

Le Corbusier Quote About Mykonos overlaid over the image of Mykonos's Houses

“Unless you have seen the houses in Mykonos, you can’t pretend to be an architect. Whatever architecture has to say, it is said here” Le Corbusier


“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


“This was Mykonos, a seaside sanctuary so timeless that I half expected to glimpse Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings walking along the dock as we disembarked from the ferry” Bobby Underwood


“Located in the Cyclades and surrounded by the blue-green water of the Aegean sits whitewashed, windmill-strewn Mykonos, the island of the winds” Lizy Manola

Quotes about Mykonos SYROKOU

“The beauty in front of her interrupted her thoughts. She took a deep breath, staring at the shores of Mykonos with the scenic coves and the golden sand beaches” Angel Sefer


“Her dress sparkled like the stars that blanketed the Mykonos night sky” Anthea Syrokou


“I felt like a pilgrim upon a rare and spiritual planet landing on the soil of Mykonos; I ensured it could give me a high inspiration for a next new epic, which was machining inside my inner brains.” Nithin Purple, The Bell Ringing Woman: A Blue Bell of Inspiration

Read Next: More Inspirational Quotes About Mykonos

Funny Quotes About Greece

If you prefer something humorous, here are some funny Greece captions that are sure to make you smile, especially if you know Greece! Share these funny quotes about Greeks with your friends too.

“I want to have an “Eat, Pray, Love” experience where I drop off the face of the planet and move to Greece” Jennifer Hyman


“On my wedding night, my mother said, “Greek women, we may be lambs in the kitchen, but we are tigers in the bedroom.” Maria Portokalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding)


“There are two kinds of people. Greeks, and everyone else who wishes they were Greek” Gus Portokalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding)


“I’m going to Greece for the sex! Sex for breakfast! Sex for dinner! Sex for tea!” (Shirley Valentine)


“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. For instance, when you’re walking away from a bus that’s just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it’s raining on top of everything else, most people might think that’s just really bad luck; when you’re a half-blood, you understand that some divine force is really trying to mess up your day” Rick Riordan


“If I’d been born in ancient Greece, I’d worship Zeus and Aphrodite” Richard Dawkins


“An Aristotle was but the rubbish of an Adam, and Athens but the rudiments of Paradise” Robert South


“Most British newspapers now have more columns than the Acropolis” Ian Jack

Melina Mercouri quote about greece over an image of Greek architecture

“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


“You can’t swing a cat in Ancient Greece without hitting one of Zeus’s ex-girlfriends” Rick Riordan


“Alcohol makes other people less tedious, and food less bland, and can help provide what the Greeks called entheos, or the slight buzz of inspiration when reading or writing” Christopher Hitchens


“If you look at a map of Europe, you will observe that Greece is a skeleton-like hand stretching its crooked fingers out into the Mediterranean Sea” Will Durant

Ancient Greek Philosophers Quotes About Greece

These quotes about Greece include words of wisdom passed down over many centuries. Discover the words of ancient Greek philosophers through Greek sayings, Greek love quotes and beautiful Greek quotes about life.

“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


“I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world” Socrates


“Athens – a city which is very famous for its wisdom and its power. Are you not ashamed of caring so much for making the money and making of fame and prestige when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?” Aristotle


“Empire may be gained by gold, not gold by an empire. It used, indeed, to be a proverb that “It is not Philip, but Philip’s gold that takes the cities of Greece” Aemilius


“Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean Sea” Nikos Kazantzakis

Ancient Greece Quotes

Ancient Greece was an advanced civilization. Some ideas and inventions from Greek scientists, architects, and philosophers are still used today. Here are some inspiring quotes about ancient Greece. Step back in time with these beautiful quotes about ancient Greece to discover Greek love quotes and mythology quotes. 

“Greek is a musical and prolific language that gives a soul to the objects of sense and a body to the abstractions of philosophy” Edward Gibbon


“Even people who know nothing about Greece know something about Greece. The very name sparks visions of ancient civilizations that dominated the Mediterranean” Polly Letofsky


“I would like to be a philosopher in ancient Greece and a poet in ancient China” Shan Sa


“Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts and eloquence, native to famous wits” John Milton


“The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your power along the lines of excellence” John F Kennedy


“How can any educated person stay away from the Greeks? I have always been far more interested in them than in Science” Albert Einstein


“The Greek language has the best mathematical structure, and it will be used for a new generation of most sophisticated computers because only in the Greek language there are no limits” Bill Gates

Beautiful Greece Sayings

The final quotes about Greece are beautiful Greek proverbs – words of wisdom passed down through generations of Greek families.

“Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all” Hypatia


“He who becomes a sheep is eaten by the wolf” Greek Proverb


“An orator without judgment is a horse without a bridle” Theophrastus


“He who cannot bear misfortune is truly unfortunate. Whatever is good to know is difficult to learn.” Greece Proverb

Final Thoughts – Quotes About Greece

These quotes about Greece encapsulate this fascinating country’s timeless allure and rich cultural heritage. From its ancient ruins to its breathtaking landscapes, Greece has captivated the hearts and minds of travellers and philosophers alike throughout history.

These Greece captions for Instagram and Greek quotes can remind you of the legacy that Greece has left on the world – or of the amazing time you had in this beautiful country 🙂

Whether you’re looking for inspiration or just want to immerse yourself in the beauty of this Mediterranean paradise, these quotes about Greece offer a glimpse into spirit of Greece that continues to inspire generations.

There is truly no other place quite like Greece 🙂

I hope this epic collection of quotes about Greece has inspired you to consider visiting Greece and its beautiful islands.

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Image of the Parthenon overlaid with writing saying Discover the best Greece Quotes

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