Quotes by Homer
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Restrain yourself... and gloat in silence. I'll have no jubilation here. It is an impious thing to exult over the slain.

Bad herdsmen waste the flocks which thou hast left behind.

He was the loveliest born of the race of mortals, and therefore the gods caught him away to themselves, to be Zeus' wine-pourer, for the sake of his beauty, so he might be among the immortals.

Sensitive love letters are my specialty. 'Dear Baby, Welcome to Dumpsville. Population: you.'

And rest at last where souls unbodied dwell,

In ever-flowing meads of Asphodel.

Oh, look at me! I'm making people happy! I'm the Magical Man from Happy-Land, in a gumdrop house on Lollipop Lane! Oh, by the way, I was being sarcastic.

Thou shalt not take moochers into thy hut?

The stars never lie, but the astrologers lie about the stars.

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

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

The natural thing, my lord, men and women joined.

There will be killing till the score is paid.

No trust is to be placed in women.

We live in a society of laws. Why do you think I took you to all those Police Academy movies? For fun? Well, I didn't hear anybody laughing, did you?

Pray, for all men need the aid of the gods.

Nay if even in the house of Hades the dead forget their dead, yet will I even there be mindful of my dear comrade.

My life is more to me than all the wealth of Ilius.

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.

Strife, only a slight thing when she first rears her head but her head soon hits the sky as she strides across the earth.

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

Beauty! Terrible Beauty! A deathless Goddess -- so she strikes our eyes!

A man's life breath cannot come back again --

no raiders in force, no trading brings it back,

once it slips through a man's clenched teeth.

His descent was like nightfall.

Strife and Confusion joined the fight, along with cruel Death, who seized one wounded man while still alive and then another man without a wound, while pulling the feet of one more corpse out from the fight. The clothes Death wore around her shoulders were dyed red with human blood.

Why have you come to me here, dear heart, with all these instructions? I promise you I will do everything just as you ask. But come closer. Let us give in to grief, however briefly, in each other's arms.

Sing, O muse, of the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.

Forget the brother and resume the man.

We all scribble poetry.

Pine needle sorbet? Pine needle sorbet?! My kids do NOT eat sorbet. They eat sherbet, and they pronounce it sherbert, and they wish it was ice cream!

I would rather be tied to the soil as a serf... than be king of all these dead and destroyed.

The ugliest man was he who came to Troy; with squinting eyes and one distorted foot.

She spoke and loosened from her bosom the embroidered girdle of many colors into which all her allurements were fashioned. In it was love and int desire which steals the mind even of the wise.

There is a strength in the even of very sorry men.

It's about time trees were good for something, instead of just standing there like jerks!

There is satiety in all things, in sleep, and love-making, in the loveliness of singing and the innocent dance.

Bursts as a wave that from the clouds impends, And swell'd with tempests on the ship descends; White are the decks with foam; the winds aloud Howl o'er the masts, and sing through every shroud: Pale, trembling, tir'd, the sailors freeze with fears; And instant death on every wave appears.

Now what is a wedding? Well, Webster's dictionary describes a wedding as the process of removing weeds from one's garden.

Sleep and Death, who are twin brothers.

How delicate her feet who shuns the ground, Stepping a-tiptoe on the heads of men.

For Fate has wove the thread of life with pain,

And twins ev'n from the birth are Misery and Man!

Endure, my heart; yea, a baser thing thou once didst bear.

The man who acts the least, upbraids the most.

Thou knowst the oer-eager vehemence of youth,How quick in temper, and in judgement weak.

I want to be alone with my thought.

One who contends with immortals lives a very short life.

When night falls and the world lies lost in sleep,
I take to my bed, my heart throbbing, about to break,
anxieties swarming, piercing--I may go mad with grief.

Command thy vassals, but command not me.

You never know when an old calendar might come in handy! Sure, it's not 1985 right now, but who knows what tomorrow will bring?

It's disgraceful how these humans blame the gods. They say their tribulations come from us, when they themselves, through their own foolishness, bring hardships which are not decreed by Fate.

There is not any advantage to be won from grim lamentation.

And they die an equal death -- the idler and the man of mighty deeds.

The tongue of man is a twisty thing, there are plenty of words there of every kind.

My mother Thetis tells me that there are two ways in which I may meet my end. If I stay here and fight, I will not return alive but my name will live forever: whereas if I go home my name will die, but it will be long ere death shall take me.

He knew the things that were and the things that would be and the things that had been before.

Let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter.

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.

Fear, O Achilles, the wrath of heaven; think on your own father and have compassion upon me, who am the more pitiable.

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.

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

We cannot all hope to combine the pleasing qualities of good looks, brains, and eloquence.

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.

Down the dank mouldering paths and past the Ocean's streams they went
and past the White Rock and the Sun's Western Gates and past
the Land of Dreams, and soon they reached the fields of asphodel
where the dead, the burnt-out wraiths of mortals make their home.

But sing no more this bitter tale that wears my heart away.

I too seemed destined to be a man of fortune once
and a wild wicked swath I cut, indulged my lust for violence,
stalking all on my father and my brothers.

Look at me now,
And so, I say, let no man ever be lawless all his life,
just take in peace what gifts the gods will send.

What we give to the poor, we lend to God.

He knew how to say many false things that were like true sayings.

Even his griefs are a joy long after to one that remembers all that he wrought and endured.

The blade itself incites to deeds of violence.

For never, never, wicked man was wise.

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

Some things you will think of yourself,...some things God will put into your mind.

Each man delights in the work that suits him best.

You know those balls that they put on car antennas so you can find them in the parking lot? Those should be on every car!

The leader, mingling with the vulgar host, Is in the common mass of matter lost.

Rather I'd choose laboriously to bear A weight of woes, and breathe the vital air, A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread, Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead.

Far from me be the gift of Bacchus -- pernicious, inflaming wine, that weakens both body and mind.

The strong must protect the sweet.

Oh, my tattered rags are caught on your coffee table.

Reproach is infinite, and knows no end.

Whenever a man is tired, wine is a great restorer of strength.

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.

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

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

Remember that postcard Grandpa sent us from Florida of that Alligator biting that woman's bottom? That's right, we all thought it was hilarious. But, it turns out we were wrong. That alligator was sexually harassing that woman.

Short is my date, but deathless my renown.

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

Whatever day Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away.

The rule

Of the many is not well. One must be chief

In war and one the king.

One who journeying Along a way he knows not, having crossed A place of drear extent, before him sees A river rushing swiftly toward the deep, And all its tossing current white with foam, And stops and turns, and measures back his way.

I've finally tapped into that spirit of self-destruction that makes rock-n-roll the king of music!

Many shining actions owe their success to chance, though the general or statesman receive the applause.

Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs, Silence that spoke and eloquence of eyes.

Will cast the spear and leave the rest to Jove.