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Homer Quotes

Homer (Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος) is best known as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He was believed by the ancient Greeks to have been the first and greatest of the epic poets.

Also known as: Homer's Odyssey, Homeric

Random Homer quote

287 quotes

To labour is the lot of man below;
And when Jove gave us life, he gave us woe.

The rule
Of the many is not well. One must be chief
In war and one the king.

The ruins of himself! now worn away
With age, yet still majestic in decay.

Fly, dotard, fly!
With thy wise dreams and fables of the sky.

It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize,
And to be swift is less than to be wise.
'Tis more by art, than force of numerous strokes.

The fiction pleased; our generous train complies,
Nor fraud mistrusts in virtue's fair disguise.
The work she plyed, but, studious of delay,
Each following night reversed the toils of day.

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

No shame in running,
fleeing disaster, even in pitch darkness.
Better to flee from death than feel its grip.

Iliad (-750)

Now from the smooth deep ocean-stream the sun
Began to climb the heavens, and with new rays
Smote the surrounding fields.

Lordship for many is no good thing. Let there be one ruler,
one king.

Iliad (-750)

What mighty woes
To thy imperial race from woman rose.

The fool of fate, thy manufacture, man.

Whose little body lodged a mighty mind.

In youth and beauty wisdom is but rare!

Forget the brother and resume the man.

A faultless body and a blameless mind.

Axylos, Teuthranos's son that dwelt in stablished Arisbe; a man of substance dear to his fellows; for his dwelling was by the road-side and he entertained all men.

Gentle of speech, beneficent of mind.

The glory of a firm capacious mind.

Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage,
But, wise through time, and narrative with age,
In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice,
A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Homer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.