Homer

Quotes

Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing, sooner than war.
Such was the burial they gave to Hector, tamer of horses.
Sing, Muse, of the anger of Achilles, son of Peleus...
Do thou restrain the haughty spirit in thy breast, for better far is gentle courtesy.
It is equally offensive to speed a guest who would like to stay and to detain one who is anxious to leave.
He knew the things that were and the things that would be and the things that had been before.
If you are very valiant, it is a god, I think, who gave you this gift.
Whoever obeys the gods, to him they particularly listen.
A councilor ought not to sleep the whole night through, a man to whom the populace is entrusted, and who has many responsibilities.
A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.
The glorious gifts of the gods are not to be cast aside.
Young men's minds are always changeable, but when an old man is concerned in a matter, he looks both before and after.
He lives not long who battles with the immortals, nor do his children prattle about his knees when he has come back from battle and the dread fray.
A generation of men is like a generation of leaves; the wind scatters some leaves upon the ground, while others the burgeoning wood brings forth - and the season of spring comes on. So of men one generation springs forth and another ceases.
Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.
Even when someone battles hard, there is an equal portion for one who lingers behind, and in the same honor are held both the coward and the brave man; the idle man and he who has done much meet death alike.
A companion's words of persuasion are effective.
It was built against the will of the immortal gods, and so it did not last for long.
The single best augury is to fight for one's country.
There is a strength in the union even of very sorry men.
There is a fullness of all things, even of sleep and love.
You will certainly not be able to take the lead in all things yourself, for to one man a god has given deeds of war, and to another the dance, to another lyre and song, and in another wide-sounding Zeus puts a good mind.
It is not possible to fight beyond your strength, even if you strive.
It is not unseemly for a man to die fighting in defense of his country.
Of men who have a sense of honor, more come through alive than are slain, but from those who flee comes neither glory nor any help.
The outcome of the war is in our hands; the outcome of words is in the council.
Once harm has been done, even a fool understands it.
I too shall lie in the dust when I am dead, but now let me win noble renown.
Zeus does not bring all men's plans to fulfillment.
Miserable mortals who, like leaves, at one moment flame with life, eating the produce of the land, and at another moment weakly perish.
It is entirely seemly for a young man killed in battle to lie mangled by the bronze spear. In his death all things appear fair. But when dogs shame the gray head and gray chin and nakedness of an old man killed, it is the most piteous thing that happens among wretched mortals.
The fates have given mankind a patient soul.
Thus have the gods spun the thread for wretched mortals: that they live in grief while they themselves are without cares; for two jars stand on the floor of Zeus of the gifts which he gives, one of evils and another of blessings.
By their own follies they perished, the fools.
Look now how mortals are blaming the gods, for they say that evils come from us, but in fact they themselves have woes beyond their share because of their own follies.
You ought not to practice childish ways, since you are no longer that age.
For rarely are sons similar to their fathers: most are worse, and a few are better than their fathers.
A young man is embarrassed to question an older one.
All men have need of the gods.
The minds of the everlasting gods are not changed suddenly.
A small rock holds back a great wave.
May the gods grant you all things which your heart desires, and may they give you a husband and a home and gracious concord, for there is nothing greater and better than this -when a husband and wife keep a household in oneness of mind, a great woe to their enemies and joy to their friends, and win high renown.
All strangers and beggars are from Zeus, and a gift, though small, is precious.
We are quick to flare up, we races of men on the earth.
So it is that the gods do not give all men gifts of grace - neither good looks nor intelligence nor eloquence.
Evil deeds do not prosper; the slow man catches up with the swift.
Among all men on the earth bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the muse has taught them songs and loves the race of bards.
There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.
There is nothing more dread and more shameless than a woman who plans such deeds in her heart as the foul deed which she plotted when she contrived her husband's murder.
I should rather labor as another's serf, in the home of a man without fortune, one whose livelihood was meager, than rule over all the departed dead.
It is tedious to tell again tales already plainly told.
The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken.
It is equally wrong to speed a guest who does not want to go, and to keep one back who is eager. You ought to make welcome the present guest, and send forth the one who wishes to go.
Even his griefs are a joy long after to one that remembers all that he wrought and endured.
Wide-sounding Zeus takes away half a man's worth on the day when slavery comes upon him.
The gods, likening themselves to all kinds of strangers, go in various disguises from city to city, observing the wrongdoing and the righteousness of men.
Nothing feebler than a man does the earth raise up, of all the things which breathe and move on the earth, for he believes that he will never suffer evil in the future, as long as the gods give him success and he flourishes in his strength; but when the blessed gods bring sorrows too to pass, even these he bears, against his will, with steadfast spirit, for the thoughts of earthly men are like the day which the father of gods and men brings upon them.
Dreams surely are difficult, confusing, and not everything in them is brought to pass for mankind. For fleeting dreams have two gates: one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Those which pass through the one of sawn ivory are deceptive, bringing tidings which come to nought, but those which issue from the one of polished horn bring true results when a mortal sees them.
The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for.
I detest that man who hides one thing in the depths of his heart, and speaks for another.