“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

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "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 …" by Homér?
Homér photo
Homér 217
Ancient Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey

Related quotes

Stephen Sondheim photo

“They all deserve to die.
Even you, Mrs. Lovett
Even I.

Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief
For the rest of us death would be relief.”

Stephen Sondheim (1930) American composer and lyricist

Source: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Rick Riordan photo
Uesugi Kenshin photo

“Engage in combat fully determined to die and you will be alive; wish to survive in the battle and you will surely meet death.”

Uesugi Kenshin (1530–1578) Japanese daimyo

Quoted in Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro; Zen Buddhism and Its Influence on Japanese Culture (1970); p. 188
Cited in Wisdom from Early Japan, The Samurai Archives, 2006-11-07 http://www.samurai-archives.com/wisdom.html,
Cited in [Storry, Richard, October 11, 1979, Cult of the Sword, The New York Review of Books, 26, 15, ISSN 0028-7504, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=7675, 2006-11-07] (Review of several books on the samurai of Japan.)
Alternative: "Those who cling to life die, and those who defy death live."

Haruki Murakami photo
Suzanne Collins photo

“Every day when I wake I tell myself that it will be my last. If you are not trying to hold on to time, you are not so afraid of losing it… And then, if you make it to bedtime, you feel the joy of cheating death out of one more day.”

Variant: You see, I tired of constant fear, so I made a decision. Every day when I wake I tell myself that it will be my last. If you are not trying to hold on to time, you are not so afraid of losing it.
Source: Gregor the Overlander

Joseph Heller photo
Muhammad photo
Jonathan Stroud photo
Richard K. Morgan photo
Eckhart Tolle photo

Related topics