It is not right to exult over slain men.

— Homer

It is the bold man who every time does best at home or abroad.

— Homer

[I’t is the wine that leads me on, the wild wine that sets the wisest man to sing at the top of his lungs, laugh like a fool – it drives Theban to dancing... it even tempts him to blurt out stories better never told.

— Homer

I would disapprove of another hospitable man who was excessive in friendship, as of one excessive in hate. In all things balance is better.

— Homer

Labor conquers all things.

— Homer

Let him submit to me! Only the god of death is so relentless, Death submits to no one—so mortals hate him most of all the gods. Let him bow down to me! I am the greater king, I am the elder-born, I claim—the greater man.

— Homer

Light is the task when many share the toil.

— Homer

Like a girl, a baby running after her mother, begging to be picked up, and she tugs on her skirts, holding her back as she tries to hurry off—all tears, fawning up at her, till she takes her in her arms… That’s how you look, Patrols, streaming live tears.

— Homer

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

— Homer

Man is the vainest of all creatures that have their being upon earth. As long as heaven vouchsafes him health and strength, he thinks that he shall come too harm hereafter, and even when the blessed gods bring sorrow upon him, he bears it as he needs must, and makes the best of it; forged Almighty gives men their daily minds day by day. I know all about it, for I was a rich man once, and did much wrong in the stubbornness of my pride, and in the confidence that my father Andy brothers would support me; therefore let a man fear God in all things always, and take the good that heaven may see fit to send him without vainglory.

— Homer