Homér Quotes (217 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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Famous Homér Quotes

“I didn't lie! I just created fiction with my mouth!”

Homér

“A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“Nevertheless I long—I pine, all my days—
to travel home and see the dawn of my return.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

V. 219–220 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed. You will never be more lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”

Homér Iliad

Variant: Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.
Source: The Iliad

“If you serve too many masters, you'll soon suffer.”

Homér

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

Homér

Homér Quotes about God

“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.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“Is he not sacred, even to the gods, the wandering man who comes in weariness?”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

“And gods in guise of strangers from afar in every form do roam our cities, marking the sin and righteousness of men.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XVII. 485–487 (tr. G. H. Palmer).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Just take in peace what gifts the gods will send.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XVIII. 142 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“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.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“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.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

Homér Quotes about men

“Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing, sooner than of war.”

Homér Iliad

A misquotation http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2009-August/092648.html of:

Πάντων μὲν κόρος ἐστὶ καὶ ὕπνου καὶ φιλότητος
μολπῆς τε γλυκερῆς καὶ ἀμύμονος ὀρχηθμοῖο,
τῶν πέρ τις καὶ μᾶλλον ἐέλδεται ἐξ ἔρον εἷναι
ἢ πολέμου· Τρῶες δὲ μάχης ἀκόρητοι ἔασιν.

Men get
Their fill of all things, of sleep and love, sweet song
And flawless dancing, and most men like these things
Much better than war. Only Trojans are always
Thirsty for blood!

Iliad, XIII, 636–639 (tr. Ennis Rees)

The misquotation implies that an overweening love of war was the norm, whereas the real quote decries the Trojans as inhumane for keeping the war going.
Misattributed

“We men are wretched things.”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

“But Zeus does not bring to accomplishment all thoughts in men's minds.”

Homér Iliad

XVIII. 328 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Always it is, that the hearts in the younger men are frivolous,
but when an elder man is among them, he looks behind him
and in front, so that all comes out far better for both sides.”

Homér Iliad

III. 108–110 (tr. Richmond Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“So now I meet my doom. Well let me die—
but not without struggle, not without glory, no,
in some great clash of arms that even men to come
will hear of down the years!”

Homér Iliad

XXII. 303 (tr. Robert Fagles); spoken by Hector.
Richmond Lattimore's translation:
: But now my death is upon me.
Let me at least not die without a struggle, inglorious,
but do some big thing first, that men to come shall know of it.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Who on earth could blame them? Ah, no wonder
the men of Troy and Argives under arms have suffered
years of agony all for her, for such a woman.
Beauty, terrible beauty!
A deathless goddess—so she strikes our eyes!”

Homér Iliad

III. 156–158 (tr. Robert Fagles); of Helen.
Richmond Lattimore's translation:
: Surely there is no blame on Trojans and strong-greaved Achaians
if for long time they suffer hardship for a woman like this one.
Terrible is the likeness of her face to immortal goddesses.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Homér: Trending quotes

“Smiling through tears.”

Homér Iliad

VI. 484 (tr. Lord Derby); of Andromache.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Smile , Tear

“Now always be the best, my boy, the bravest,
and hold your head up high above the others.”

Homér Iliad

VI. 208 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Boy

“Why so much grief for me? No man will hurl me down to Death, against my fate. 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.”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

Death , Fate

Homér Quotes

“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.”

Homér Iliad

VI. 488–489 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Fate

“Life is largely a matter of expectation.”

Homér

Life

“And empty words are evil.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

Evil

“Few sons, indeed, are like their fathers.
Generally they are worse; but just a few are better.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

II. 276–277 (tr. E. V. Rieu).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
Source: The Odyssey

“Of all that breathes and crawls across the earth,
our mother earth breeds nothing feebler than a man.”

Homér Iliad

XVIII. 130–131 (tr. Robert Fagles). Cf. Iliad, XVII. 446–447.
Samuel Butler's translation:
: Man is the vainest of all creatures that have their being upon earth.
Robert Fitzgerald's translation:
: Of mortal creatures, all that breathe and move,
earth bears none frailer than mankind.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
Variant: Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.
Source: The Iliad

“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!”

Homér Iliad

Source: The Iliad

Death , War , Heart

“Some of the words you'll find within yourself,
the rest some power will inspire you to say.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

III. 26–27 (tr. Robert Fagles); Athena to Telemachus.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“There is the heat of Love,
the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover's whisper,
irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.”

Homér Iliad

XIV. 216–217 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Alexander Pope's translation:
: In this was every art, and every charm,
To win the wisest, and the coldest warm:
Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire,
The kind deceit, the still reviving fire,
Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,
Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
Source: The Iliad

Love , Lovers , Madness

“Who dares think one thing, and another tell,
My heart detests him as the gates of hell.”

Homér Iliad

IX. 312–313 (tr. Alexander Pope).
A. H. Chase and W. G. Perry, Jr.'s translation:
: Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is the man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
Source: The Iliad

Hell , Thinking , Heart

“For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

VIII. 585–586 (tr. G. H. Palmer).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
Source: The Odyssey

Understanding , Heart

“The blade itself incites to deeds of violence.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“Too many kings can ruin an army”

Homér

“By hook or by crook this peril too shall be something that we remember”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

“Tell me, O muse, of travellers far and wide”

Homér

Travel

“On valour's side the odds of combat lie,
The brave live glorious, or lamented die;
The wretch who trembles in the field of fame,
Meets death, and worse than death, eternal shame.”

Homér Iliad

XV. 563–564 (tr. Alexander Pope).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Death , Lie

“And some day let them say of him:
'He is better by far than his father.”

Homér Iliad

VI. 479 (tr. R. Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before—
I put to my lips the hands of the man who killed my son.”

Homér Iliad

XXIV. 505–506 (tr. Robert Fagles); Priam to Achilles.
Richmond Lattimore's translation:
: I have gone through what no other mortal on earth has gone through;
I put my lips to the hands of the man who has killed my children.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Three times I rushed toward her, desperate to hold her,
three times she fluttered through my fingers, sifting away
like a shadow, dissolving like a dream.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XI. 206–208 (tr. Robert Fagles); Odysseus attempting to embrace his mother's spirit in the Underworld.
Compare Virgil, Aeneid, II. 792–793 (tr. C. Pitt):
: Thrice round her neck my eager arms I threw;
Thrice from my empty arms the phantom flew.
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

Dreams , Time

“Rosy-fingered Dawn.”

Homér Iliad

I. 477 (tr. Samuel Butler).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“If only strife could die from the lives of gods and men”

Homér Iliad

XVIII. 107–110 (tr. Robert Fagles); spoken by Achilles.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
Context: If only strife could die from the lives of gods and men
and anger that drives the sanest man to flare in outrage—
bitter gall, sweeter than dripping streams of honey,
that swarms in people's chests and blinds like smoke.

Men , God

“Nobody, friends’—Polyphemus bellowed back from his cave—
‘Nobody's killing me now by fraud and not by force!”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

IX. 407–408 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

Fraud

“Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles”

Homér Iliad

I. 1–5 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
Context: 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.

Rage , Singing

“Yet do not bring up against me the sweet favours of golden Aphrodite.
Never to be cast away are the gifts of the gods, magnificent,
which they give of their own will, no man could have them for wanting them.”

Homér Iliad

III. 64–66 (tr. Richmond Lattimore).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

God

“Oh, wonder! Even in the house of Hades there is left something,
a soul and an image, but there is no real heart of life in it.”

Homér Iliad

XXIII. 103–104 (tr. R. Lattimore); Achilles after seeing Patroclus' ghost.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Life , Soul , Heart , Housing

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

Homér Iliad

XIV. 80–81 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Richmond Lattimore's translation:
: There is no shame in running, even by night, from disaster.
The man does better who runs from disaster than he who is caught by it.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

Death , Feeling

“Alike he thwarts the hospitable end,
Who drives the free, or stays the hasty friend:
True friendship's laws are by this rule expressed,
Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XV. 72–74 (tr. Alexander Pope).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

Parting , Speed

“There is a time for many words and there is a time also for sleep.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XI. 379 (tr. A. T. Murray).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
Source: The Odyssey

Good Night , Sleep , Time

“There is nothing more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey