Homer Quotes

245 Sourced Quotes

So it is that the gods do not give all men gifts of grace—neither good looks nor intelligence nor eloquence.

Homer
No one can hurry me down to Hades before my time, but if a man's hour is come, be he brave or be he coward, there is no escape for him when he has once been born.

Homer
It never was our guise to slight the poor, or aught humane despise.

Homer
Always to be bravest and to be preeminent above others.

Homer
There she met sleep, the brother of death.

Homer
It is not unseemly for a man to die fighting in defense of his country.

Homer
The single best augury is to fight for one's country.

Homer
So they spoke, and both springing down from behind their horses
gripped each other's hands and exchanged the promise of friendship;
but Zeus the son of Kronos stole away the wits of Glaukos
who exchanged with Diomedes the son of Tydeus armour
of gold for bronze, for nine oxen's worth the worth of a hundred.

Homer
Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies And sure he will for Wisdom never lies.

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
Friend, many and many a dream is mere confusion a cobweb of no consequence at all. Two gates for ghostly dreams there are: One gateway of honest horn, and one of ivory. Issuing by the ivory gate are dreams of glimmering illusion, fantasies, but those that come through solid polished horn may be borne out, if mortals only know them.

Homer
Not at all similar are the race of the immortal gods and the race of men who walk upon the earth.

Homer
The hearts of the noble may be turned [by entreaty].

Homer
Olympus, where they say there is an abode of the gods, ever unchanging: it is neither shaken by winds nor ever wet with rain, nor does snow come near it, but clear weather spreads cloudless about it, and a white radiance stretches above it.

Homer
There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover's whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.

Homer
All things are in the hand of heaven, and Folly, eldest of Jove's daughters, shuts men's eyes to their destruction. She walks delicately, not on the solid earth, but hovers over the heads of men to make them stumble or to ensnare them.

Homer
The glorious gifts of the gods are not to be cast aside.

Homer
For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother

Homer
Like that star of the waning summer who beyond all stars rises bathed in the ocean stream to glitter in brilliance.

Homer
If you are very valiant, it is a god, I think, who gave you this gift.

Homer
Behold, on wrong Swift vengeance waits; and art subdues the strong.

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
A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much.

Homer
Their ships are swift as a bird or a thought.

Homer
Prayers are the daughters of mighty Zeus, lame and wrinkled and slanting-eyed.

Homer
As the woman with the dog's eyes would not close my eyelids for me as I lay dying into Hades.

Homer
Uncontrollable laughter arose among the blessed gods.

Homer
By mutual confidence and mutual aid - great deeds are done, and great discoveries made

Homer
Here, therefore, huge and mighty warrior though you be, here shall you die.

Homer
I too shall lie in the dust when I am dead, but now let me win noble renown.

Homer