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Quotes by Homer

A decent boldness ever meets with friends.
– Homer
A sympathetic friend can be quite as dear as a brother.
– Homer
And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared.
– Homer
Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this.
– Homer
But curb thou the high spirit in thy breast, for gentle ways are best, and keep aloof from sharp contentions.
– Homer
Even were sleep is concerned, too much is a bad thing.
– Homer
Hateful to me as are the gates of hell, Is he who, hiding one thing in his heart, Utters another.
– Homer
How vain, without the merit, is the name.
– Homer
It is not good to have a rule of many.
– Homer
Light is the task where many share the toil.
– Homer
The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for.
– Homer
There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.
– Homer
Two urns on Jove's high throne have ever stood,The source of evil one, and one of good; From thence the cup of mortal man he fills,Blessings to these, to those distributes ills;To most he mingles both.
– Homer
Without a sign, his sword the brave man draws, and asks no omen, but his country's cause.
– Homer
Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for other's good, and melt at other's woe.
– Homer
Fate is the same for the man who holds back, the same if he fights hard. We are all held in a single honor, the brave with the weaklings. A man dies still if he has done nothing, as the one who has done much.
– Homer
At last is Hector stretch'd upon the plain,
Who fear'd no vengeance for Patroclus slain:
Then, Prince! You should have fear'd, what now you feel;
Achilles absent was Achilles still:
Yet a short space the great avenger stayed,
Then low in dust thy strength and glory laid.
– Homer
I detest that man who hides one thing in the depths of his heart, and speaks for another.
– Homer
A companion's words of persuasion are effective.
– Homer
A councilor ought not to sleep the whole night through, a man to whom the populace is entrusted, and who has many responsibilities.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
He knew the things that were and the things that would be and the things that had been before.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
I too shall lie in the dust when I am dead, but now let me win noble renown.
– Homer
If you are very valiant, it is a god, I think, who gave you this gift.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
It is not possible to fight beyond your strength, even if you strive.
– Homer
It is not unseemly for a man to die fighting in defense of his country.
– Homer
It was built against the will of the immortal gods, and so it did not last for long.
– Homer
Miserable mortals who, like leaves, at one moment flame with life, eating the produce of the land, and at another moment weakly perish.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
Once harm has been done, even a fool understands it.
– Homer
The fates have given mankind a patient soul.
– Homer
The glorious gifts of the gods are not to be cast aside.
– Homer
The outcome of the war is in our hands; the outcome of words is in the council.
– Homer
The single best augury is to fight for one's country.
– Homer
There is a fullness of all things, even of sleep and love.
– Homer
There is a strength in the union even of very sorry men.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
Whoever obeys the gods, to him they particularly listen.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
Young men's minds are always changeable, but when an old man is concerned in a matter, he looks both before and after.
– Homer
Zeus does not bring all men's plans to fulfillment.
– Homer
A small rock holds back a great wave.
– Homer
A young man is embarrassed to question an older one.
– Homer
All men have need of the gods.
– Homer
All strangers and beggars are from Zeus, and a gift, though small, is precious.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
By their own follies they perished, the fools.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
Even his griefs are a joy long after to one that remembers all that he wrought and endured.
– Homer
Evil deeds do not prosper; the slow man catches up with the swift.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
It is tedious to tell again tales already plainly told.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
So it is that the gods do not give all men gifts of grace - neither good looks nor intelligence nor eloquence.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
The minds of the everlasting gods are not changed suddenly.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
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.
– Homer
We are quick to flare up, we races of men on the earth.
– Homer
Wide-sounding Zeus takes away half a man's worth on the day when slavery comes upon him.
– Homer
You ought not to practice childish ways, since you are no longer that age.
– Homer
Words empty as the wind are best left unsaid.
– Homer
To have a great man for an intimate friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it those who have, fear it.
– Homer
In youth and beauty, wisdom is but rare!
– Homer