100 Quotes by Homer
Homer, the legendary ancient Greek poet, is the enigmatic figure behind two of the most influential epic poems in Western literature: the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey." While the details of his life are shrouded in mystery, his works have left an enduring impact on storytelling and culture. The "Iliad" delves into the heroic tales of the Trojan War, exploring themes of honor, fate, and the complexities of human nature. The "Odyssey" follows the journey of Odysseus as he faces myriad challenges on his return home after the war, offering insights into themes of resilience, cleverness, and the longing for home. Homer's epics have not only shaped literary traditions but have also contributed to discussions about heroism, morality, and the human experience. His influence can be traced through centuries of literature, art, and philosophy, highlighting his role as a foundational figure in the tapestry of Western culture.
Homer Quotes
Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another. (Meaning)
Even his griefs are a joy long after to one that remembers all that he wrought and endured. (Quote Meaning)
Words empty as the wind are best left unsaid. (Meaning)
Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant. (Quote Meaning)
There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends. (Meaning)
Wise to resolve, and patient to perform. (Quote Meaning)
A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time. (Meaning)
The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for. (Quote Meaning)
Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man. (Meaning)
Two friends, two bodies with one soul inspired. (Quote Meaning)
It is not unseemly for a man to die fighting in defense of his country. (Meaning)
The fates have given mankind a patient soul. (Quote Meaning)
For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother. (Meaning)
There is a strength in the union even of very sorry men. (Quote Meaning)
Without a sign, his sword the brave man draws, and asks no omen, but his country's cause. (Meaning)
I detest that man who hides one thing in the depths of his heart, and speaks for another. (Quote Meaning)
Always to be best, and to be distinguished above the rest. (Meaning)
The glorious gifts of the gods are not to be cast aside. (Quote Meaning)
In youth and beauty, wisdom is but rare! (Meaning)
Few sons are like their fathers--most are worse, and a few are better than their fathers. (Quote Meaning)
I too shall lie in the dust when I am dead, but now let me win noble renown. (Meaning)
It is not possible to fight beyond your strength, even if you strive. (Quote Meaning)
Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for other's good, and melt at other's woe. (Meaning)
The journey is its own reward. (Quote Meaning)
Be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds. (Meaning)
Everything flows and nothing stays. (Quote Meaning)
No man or woman born, coward or brave, can shun his destiny. (Meaning)
After the event, even a fool is wise. (Quote Meaning)
There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep. (Meaning)
Bear patiently, my heart, for you have suffered heavier things. (Quote Meaning)
Modesty is of no use to a beggar. (Meaning)
Light is the task where many share the toil. (Quote Meaning)
And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared. (Meaning)
Each man delights in the work that suits him best. (Quote Meaning)
youth is quick in feeling but weak in judgement. (Meaning)
Even a fool learns something once it hits him. (Quote Meaning)
Too many kings can ruin an army (Meaning)
A hunter of shadows, himself a shade. (Quote Meaning)
out of sight,out of mind (Meaning)
Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this. (Quote Meaning)
How vain, without the merit, is the name. (Meaning)
Better to flee from death than feel its grip. (Quote Meaning)
Who love too much, hate in the like extreme. (Meaning)
The roaring seas and many a dark range of mountains lie between us. (Quote Meaning)
And empty words are evil. (Meaning)
I'll teach you to laugh at something that's funny! (Quote Meaning)
The Simpsons are going to Delaware! (Meaning)
I say no wealth is worth my life. (Quote Meaning)
Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this. (Meaning)
His descent was like nightfall. (Quote Meaning)
A decent boldness ever meets with friends. (Meaning)
I want answers now or I want them eventually! (Quote Meaning)
By their own follies they perished, the fools. (Meaning)
There will be killing till the score is paid. (Quote Meaning)
Why, you could wake up dead tomorrow (Meaning)
There is nothing alive more agonized than man / of all that breathe and crawl across the earth. (Quote Meaning)
Thou shalt not take moochers into thy hut? (Meaning)
The blade itself incites to deeds of violence. (Quote Meaning)
Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing sooner than of war. (Meaning)
Is he not sacred, even to the gods, the wandering man who comes in weariness? (Quote Meaning)
Achilles absent was Achilles still! (Meaning)
I discovered a meal between breakfast and brunch. (Quote Meaning)
All men have need of the gods. (Meaning)
Dreams are sent by God. (Quote Meaning)
A small rock holds back a great wave. (Meaning)
By hook or by crook this peril too shall be something that we remember (Quote Meaning)
Over the wine-dark sea. (Meaning)
The strong must protect the sweet. (Quote Meaning)
Thou shalt not horn in on thy husbands racket (Meaning)
My life is more to me than all the wealth of Ilius (Quote Meaning)
How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise! (Meaning)
It was built against the will of the immortal gods, and so it did not last for long. (Quote Meaning)
Money can be exchanged for goods and services! (Meaning)
Do I know what rhetorical means? (Quote Meaning)
Sing, O muse, of the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.
There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.
Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for other's good, and melt at other's woe.
After the event, even a fool is wise.
Ruin, eldest daughter of Zeus, she blinds us all, that fatal madness—she with those delicate feet of hers, never touching the earth, gliding over the heads of men to trap us all. She entangles one man, now another.
There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.
Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.
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.
The son of Saturn gave The nod with his dark brows. The ambrosial curls Upon the Sovereign One's immortal head Were shaken, and with them the mighty mount, Olympus trembled.
And they die an equal death — the idler and the man of mighty deeds.
For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother
And empty words are evil.
Rage - Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds, and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end. Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed, Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles.
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.
Nothing shall I, while sane, compare with a friend.
Hateful to me as are the gates of hell, Is he who, hiding one thing in his heart, Utters another.
And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared.
I, for one, know of no sweeter sight for a man's eyes than his own country.
There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.
Out of sight, out of mind.
The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for.
Even a fool learns something once it hits him.
Being eaten by a crocodile is just like going to sleep...in a giant blender.
Come then, put away your sword in its sheath, and let us two go up into my bed so that, lying together in the bed of love, we may then have faith and trust in each other.
Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this.
A hunter of shadows, himself a shade.
But curb thou the high spirit in thy breast, for gentle ways are best, and keep aloof from sharp contentions.
The journey is its own reward.
Young men's minds are always changeable, but when an old man is concerned in a matter, he looks both before and after.
Words empty as the wind are best left unsaid.
Be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.
Go on with a spirit that fears nothing.
Better to live or die, once and for all, than die by inches.
Men are so quick to blame the gods: they say that we devise their misery. But they themselves- in their depravity- design grief greater than the griefs that fate assigns.
There is no greater fame for a man than that which he wins with his footwork or the skill of his hands.
Few sons are like their fathers - many are worse, few better.
I'll teach you to laugh at something that's funny!
Each man delights in the work that suits him best.
Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.
Goddess-nurse of the young, give ear to my prayer, and grant that this woman may reject the love-embraces of youth and dote on grey-haired old men whose powers are dulled, but whose hearts still desire.
I've always wondered if there was a God. And now I know there is - and it's me.
The roaring seas and many a dark range of mountains lie between us.
Whenever a man is tired, wine is a great restorer of strength.
Noble and manly music invigorates the spirit, strengthens the wavering man, and incites him to great and worthy deeds.
Fate is the same for the man who holds back, the same if he fights hard. We are all held in a single honor, the brave with the weaklings. A man dies still if he has done nothing, as the one who has done much.
The stars never lie, but the astrologers lie about the stars.
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.
Whoever obeys the gods, to him they particularly listen.
A gun is not a weapon! It's a tool, like a butcher's knife, or a harpoon, or an alligator.
Light is the task where many share the toil.
In youth and beauty, wisdom is but rare!
The charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to others.
It behooves a father to be blameless if he expects his child to be.
Old people don't need companionship. They need to be isolated and studied so it can be determined what nutrients they have that might be extracted for our personal use.
Because they're stupid, that's why. That's why everybody does everything.
Wise to resolve, and patient to perform.
A guest never forgets the host who has treated him kindly.
How vain, without the merit, is the name.
Better to flee from death than feel its grip.
The fates have given mankind a patient soul.
Noblest minds are easiest bent.
I would rather be a serf in a poor man's house and be above ground than reign among the dead.
To be loved, you have to be nice to people, everyday. But to be hated, you don't have to do squat!
Trying is the first step toward failure.
I'm in a place where I don't know where I am!
It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize, And to be swift is less than to be wise.
Pray, for all men need the aid of the gods.
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.
Anger, which, far sweeter than trickling drops of honey, rises in the bosom of a man like smoke.
Like that star of the waning summer who beyond all stars rises bathed in the ocean stream to glitter in brilliance.
Goddess of song, teach me the story of a hero.
I long for home, long for the sight of home.
I guess some people never change... Or, they quickly change and then quickly change back.
Too many kings can ruin an army
A woman is a lot like a refrigerator. Six feet tall, 300 pounds...it makes ice.
No man or woman born, coward or brave, can shun his destiny.
Too dear I prized a fair enchanting face: beauty unchaste is beauty in disgrace.
You, why are you so afraid of war and slaughter? Even if all the rest of us drop and die around you, grappling for the ships, you’d run no risk of death: you lack the heart to last it out in combat—coward!
Zeus does not bring all men's plans to fulfillment.
But listen to me first and swear an oath to use all your eloquence and strength to look after me and protect me.
A generous heart repairs a slanderous tongue.
The best things beyond their measure cloy.
But there they lay, sprawled across the field, craved far more by the vultures than by wives.
Thus have the gods spun the thread for wretched mortals: that they live in grief while they themselves are without cares; for two jars stand on the floor of Zeus of the gifts which he gives, one of evils and another of blessings.
How delicate her feet who shuns the ground, Stepping a-tiptoe on the heads of men.
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.
So peaceful shalt thou end thy blissful days, And steal thyself from life by slow decays.
Bear patiently, my heart, for you have suffered heavier things.
It is not possible to fight beyond your strength, even if you strive.
Death submits to no one.
Unextinguished laughter shakes the skies.
Now what is a wedding? Well, Webster's dictionary describes a wedding as the process of removing weeds from one's garden.
The hearts of the great can be changed.
He knew the things that were and the things that would be and the things that had been before.
What mighty woes To thy imperial race from woman rose.
It is not right to glory in the slain
Discourse, the sweeter banquet of the mind.
A young man is embarrassed to question an older one.
The outcome of the war is in our hands; the outcome of words is in the council.
The glorious gifts of the gods are not to be cast aside.
Oh, everything looks bad if you remember it.
If you serve too many masters, you'll soon suffer.
Always to be best, and distinguished above the rest.
For too much rest becomes a pain.
Long exercised in woes.
Young people are thoughtless as a rule.
To speak his thoughts is every freeman's right, in peace and war, in council and in fight.
Everything flows and nothing stays.
youth is quick in feeling but weak in judgement.
The tongue of man is a twisty thing.
The man who acts the least, upbraids the most.
Who love too much, hate in the like extreme.
The force of union conquers all.
Sleep and Death, who are twin brothers.
Most grievous of all deaths it is to die of hunger.
If any man obeys the gods, they listen to him also.
Modesty is of no use to a beggar.
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.
You ought not to practice childish ways, since you are no longer that age.
Immortals are never alien to one another.
Will cast the spear and leave the rest to Jove.
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.
The Simpsons are going to Delaware!
Nothing in the world is so incontinent as a man's accursed appetite.
It is wrong to be sorry without ceasing.
There is nothing worse for mortals than a wandering life.
The lot of man-to suffer and die.
The journey is the thing.
From his tongue flowed speech sweeter than honey.
Many shining actions owe their success to chance, though the general or statesman receive the applause.
All deaths are hateful to miserable mortals, but the most pitiable death of all is to starve.
See how God ever like with like doth pair, And still the worthless doth the worthless lead!
If you're gonna get mad at me every time I do something stupid, then I guess I'll just have to stop doing stupid things.
All the survivors of the war had reached their homes and so put the perils of battle and the sea behind them.
Wine sets even a thoughtful man to singing, or sets him into softly laughing, sets him to dancing. Sometimes it tosses out a word that was better unspoken.
Like strength is felt from hope, and from despair.
Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies And sure he will for Wisdom never lies.
Marge, when I join an underground cult I expect a little support from my family.
What greater glory attends a man than what he wins with his racing feet and his striving hands?
― Homer Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
