Welcome to our collection of quotes by Homer. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Homer
Homer (Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος [hómɛːros], Hómēros) was an ancient Greek author and epic poet. He is the reputed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two epic poems that are the foundational works of ancient Greek literature. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential writers of all time.
The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Mycenaean Greek kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.
The Homeric Question—concerning by whom, when, where and under what circumstances the Iliad and Odyssey were composed—continues to be debated. Some scholars consider that the two works were written by different authors. It is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC.
The poems are in Homeric Greek, also known as Epic Greek, a literary language which shows a mixture of features of the Ionic and Aeolic dialects from different centuries; the predominant influence is Eastern Ionic. Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally. From antiquity until the present day, the influence of Homeric epic on Western civilization has been great, inspiring many of its most famous works of literature, music, art and film. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education; to Plato, Homer was simply the one who "has taught Greece" (ten Hellada pepaideuken).
Clanless, lawless, homeless is he who is in love with civil war, that brutal ferocious thing.
Our value lies in what we are and what we have been, not in our ability to recite the recent past.
Servants, when their lords no longer sway, Their minds no more to righteous courses bend.
Tell me, muse, of the of many resources who wandered far and wide after he sacked the holy citadel of Troy, and he saw the cities and learned the thoughts of many men, and on the sea he suffered in his heart many woes.
The rule of the many is not well. One must be chief In war and one the king.
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.
Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow
For other's good, and melt at other's woe.
A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time.
Son, I know this seems like the biggest disappointment of your life, but trust me, there are going to be so many more. What you've got to remember is... Oh my God, 13 men in the field! Review it, review it, review it! Yes! Play stands!
Son, stamp collecting is like life. It stopped being fun a long time ago.
It's okay, Marge. I learned my lesson. A mountain of sugar is too much for one man. That is why God dispenses it in those tiny packets and he lives on a plantation in Hawaii.
Marge, don't discourage the boy. Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals, except the weasel.
I thought I had an appetite for destruction ... but all I wanted was a club sandwich.
You know, Marge, that Bart is a little miracle -- his winning smile, his button nose, his fat little stomach, his face alight with wholesome mischief. He reminds me of me before the weight of the world crushed my spirit.
Oh, God gets your papers, but he just clicks delete without reading them, like email updates from Linkedln.
Oh, Marge, I can't stand it when you cry at dinner. The pork chops look traumatized, the mashed potatoes can't stand to watch, even the children seem upset.
Thank you, magical creatures of the mall! You have all taught me a Christmas message I'll never forget. The place to get drunk is at home.
Son, when you participate in sporting events, it's not whether you win or lose; it's how drunk you get.
I think Smithers picked me because of my motivational skills. Everyone says they have to work a lot harder when I'm around.
Each future day increase of wealth shall bring,
And o'er the past Oblivion stretch her wing.
Whatever sorrows may be thy doom, bear them with patience, if necessity entail them.
But strong of limb
And swift of foot misfortune is, and, far
Outstripping all, comes first to every land,
And there wreaks evil on mankind, which prayers
Do afterwards redress.
Ah how shameless -- the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone they say come all their miseries yes but they themselves with their own reckless ways compound their pains beyond their proper share.
There is nothing alive more agonized than man of all that breathe and crawl across the earth.
Who dares think one thing, and another tell,
My heart detests him as the gates of hell.
The rule
Of the many is not well. One must be chief
In war and one the king.
Grief tears his heart, and drives him to and fro,
In all the raging impotence of woe.
Not hate, but glory, made these chiefs contend;
And each brave foe was in his soul a friend.
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies.
For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother.
And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it,
neither brave man nor coward, I tell you --
it's born with us the day that we are born.
That is the gods' work, spinning threads of death
through the lives of mortal men,
an all to make a song for those to come.
But the great leveler, Death: not even the gods
can defend a man, not even one they love, that day
when fate takes hold and lays him out at last.
To heal divisions, to relieve th' oppress'd,
In virtue rich; in blessing others, bless'd.
See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly.
In ev'ry sorrowing soul I pour'd delight,
And poverty stood smiling in my sight.
But when Aurora, daughter of the dawn,
With rosy lustre purpled o'er the lawn.
Unruly murmurs, or ill-timed applause
Wrong the best speaker, and the justest cause.
Hear I the blatant appetite demand
Due sustenance, and with a voice that drowns
E'en all my suff'rings, till itself be fill'd.
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.
Heaven hears and pities hapless men like me, For sacred ev'n to gods is misery.
The melancholy joys of evils pass'd, For he who much has suffer'd, much will know.
You've injured me, Farshooter, most deadly of the gods;
And I'd punish you, if I had the power.
This year I invested in pumpkins. They've been going up the whole month of October and I got a feeling they're going to peak right around January. Then bang! That's when I'll cash in.
I detest the man who hides one thing in the depths of his heart and speaks forth another.
The man does better who runs from disaster than he who is caught by it.
Few sons attain the praise Of their great sires and most their sires disgrace.
She threw into the wine which they were drinking a drug which takes away grief and passion and brings forgetfulness of all ills.
Do thou restrain the haughty spirit in thy breast, for better far is gentle courtesy.
The son of Peleus pressed on in search of glory, bespattering his unconquerable hands with gore.
I, for one, know of no sweeter sight for a man's eyes than his own country.
Nothing is more miserable than man, Of all upon the earth that breathes and creeps.
And what if one of the gods does wreck me out on the wine-dark sea? I have a heart that is inured to suffering and I shall steel it to endure that too. For in my day I have had many bitter and painful experiences in war and on the stormy seas. So let this new disaster come. It only makes one more.
Must you have battle in your heart forever? The bloody toil of combat? Old contender, will you not yield to the immortal gods? That nightmare cannot die, being eternal evil itself -- horror, and pain, and chaos; there is no fighting her, no power can fight her. All that avails is flight.
Take courage, my heart: you have been through worse than this. Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this.
However, what is done is better left alone, though we resent it still, and we must curb our hearts perforce...as for my death, when Zeus and the other deathless gods appoint it, let it come.
Lay ye down the golden chain From Heaven, and pull at its inferior links Both Goddesses and Gods.
How I wish that discord could be banished from the world of gods and men, and with it anger, insidious as trickling honey, anger that makes the wisest man flare up and spreads like smoke through his whole being.
Quotes by Homer are featured in:
Courage Quotes
Friendship Quotes
Time Quotes
Words Of Wisdom Quotes
Wisdom Quotes
War Quotes