Homer - Odyssey

92 Sourced Quotes

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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
Our fruitless labours mourn, And only rich in barren fame return.

Homer
It is always the latest song that an audience applauds the most.

Homer
It is no bad thing to be a king-to see one's house enriched and one's authority enhanced.

Homer
For afterwards a man finds pleasure in his pains, when he has suffered long and wandered long. So I will tell you what you ask and seek to know.

Homer
Just are the ways of heaven; from Heaven proceed
The woes of man: Heaven doom'd the Greeks to bleed.

Homer
So peaceful shalt thou end thy blissful days, And steal thyself from life by slow decays.

Homer
Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Homer
Yea, and if some god shall wreck me in the wine-dark deep, even so I will endure… For already have I suffered full much, and much have I toiled in perils of waves and war. Let this be added to the tale of those.

Homer
There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.

Homer
If fifty bands of men surrounded us/ and every sword sang for your blood,/ you could make off still with their cows and sheep.

Homer
They strove to pile Ossa on Olympus, and on Ossa Pelion with its leafy forests, that they might scale the heavens.

Homer
Endure, my heart: you once endured something even more dreadful.

Homer
By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent, and what to those we give, to Jove is lent.

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
Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.

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
There is nothing more shameless than the accursed belly; it thrusts itself upon a man's mind in spite of his afflictions.

Homer
Thus she spoke; and I longed to embrace my dead mother's ghost. Thrice I tried to clasp her image, and thrice it slipped through my hands, like a shadow, like a dream.

Homer
If you are one of earth's inhabitants, how blest your father, and your gentle mother, blest all your kin. I know what happiness must send the warm tears to their eyes, each time they see their wondrous child go to the dancing! But one man's destiny is more than blest—he who prevails, and takes you as his bride. Never have I laid eyes on equal beauty in man or woman. I am hushed indeed.

Homer
And for yourself, may the gods grant you your heart's desire, a husband and a home, and the blessing of a harmonious life. For nothing is greater or finer than this, when a man and woman live together with one hear and mind, bringing joy to their friends and grief to their foes.

Homer
The minds of the everlasting gods are not changed suddenly.

Homer