Top 500 Homer Quotes (2026 Update)
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401. “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

402. “It is not good to have a rule of many.”

— Homer

403. “Nothing shall I, while sane, compare with a friend.”

— Homer

404. “Three thousand years have not changed the human condition in this respect; we are still lovers and victims of the will to violence, and so long as we are, Homer will be read as its truest interpreter.”

— Homer

405. “Her heart raced with joy to sleep with War.”

— Homer

406. “Heaven has appointed us dwellers on earth a time for all things.”

— Homer

407. “As leaves on the trees, such is the life of man.”

— Homer

408. “Endure, my heart; yea, a baser thing thou once didst bear.”

— Homer

409. “By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent, and what to those we give, to Jove is lent.”

— Homer

410. “We mortals hear only the news, and know nothing at all.”

— Homer

411. “Shame greatly hurts or greatly helps mankind.”

— Homer

412. “The charity that is a trifle to us can be precious to others.”

— Homer

413. “And Heaven, that every virtue bears in mind, E’en to the ashes of the just is kind.”

— Homer

414. “To heal divisions, to relieve the oppress’d, In virtue rich; in blessing others, bless’d.”

— Homer

415. “The information superhighway showed the average person what some nerd thinks about Star Trek.”

— Homer

416. “When you’re in my house you shall do as I do and believe who I believe in. So Bart butter your bacon.”

— Homer

417. “Without question it may be said of Vancouver that her position, geographically, is Imperial to a degree, that her possibilities are enormous, and that with but a feeble stretch of the imagination those possibilities might wisely be deemed certainties.”

— Homer

418. “For rarely are sons similar to their fathers: most are worse, and a few are better than their fathers.”

— Homer

419. “Ill fares the State where many masters rule; let one be lord, one king supreme.”

— Homer

420. “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

421. “And here I am using my own lungs like a sucker.”

— Homer

422. “Even when someone battles hard, there is an equal portion for one who lingers behind, and in the same honor are held both the coward and the brave man; the idle man and he who has done much meet death alike.”

— Homer

423. “Weapons themselves can tempt a man to fight.”

— Homer

424. “It is wrong to be sorry without ceasing.”

— Homer

425. “Of all the creatures that breathe and creep about on Mother Earth there is none so helpless as man. As long as the gods grant him prosperity and health he imagines he will never suffer misfortune in the future. Yet when the blessed gods bring him troubles he has no choice but to endure them with a patient heart. The reason is that the view we mortals take of this earthly life depends on what Zeus, the Father of gods and men, sends us day by day.”

— Homer

426. “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.”

— Homer

427. “Forgetful youth! but know, the Power above With ease can save each object of his love; Wide as his will extends his boundless grace.”

— Homer

428. “Scepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as knowledge is of scepticism. To be content with what we at present know, is, for the most part, to shut our ears against conviction; since, from the very gradual character of our education, we must continually forget, and emancipate ourselves from, knowledge previously acquired; we must set aside old notions and embrace fresh ones; and, as we learn, we must be daily unlearning something which it has cost us no small labour and anxiety to acquire.”

— Homer

429. “In every sorrowing soul I pour’d delight, And poverty stood smiling in my sight.”

— Homer

430. “The best things beyond their measure cloy.”

— Homer

431. “The heart in his rugged chest was pounding, torn.”

— Homer

432. “If you are very valiant, it is a god, I think, who gave you this gift.”

— Homer

433. “The spearhead sliced right through to the flesh, And when Diomedes pulled it out, Ares yelled, so loud you would have thought Ten thousand warriors had shouted at once, And the sound reverberated in the guts of Greeks and Trojans, As if Diomedes had struck not a god in armor But a bronze gong nine miles high.”

— Homer

434. “The Wrath of Achilles is my theme, that fatal wrath which, in fulfillment of the will of Zeus, brought the Achaeans so much suffering and sent the gallant souls of many nobleman to Hades, leaving their bodies as carrion for the dogs and passing birds.”

— Homer

435. “It is unfortunate for us, that, of some of the greatest men, we know least, and talk most. Homer, Socrates, and Shakespere have, perhaps, contributed more to the intellectual enlightenment of mankind than any other three writers who could be named, and yet the history of all three has given rise to a boundless ocean of discussion, which has left us little save the option of choosing which theory or theories we will follow.”

— Homer

436. “The gods are hard to handle – when they come blazing forth in their true power.”

— Homer

437. “Now son, you don’t want to drink beer. That’s for Daddies, and kids with fake IDs.”

— Homer

438. “It is equally wrong to speed a guest who does not want to go, and to keep one back who is eager. You ought to make welcome the present guest, and send forth the one who wishes to go.”

— Homer

439. “It’s man’s to fight, but heaven’s to give success.”

— Homer

440. “I’ve finally tapped into that spirit of self-destruction that makes rock-n-roll the king of music!”

— Homer

441. “It is unfortunate for us, that, of some of the greatest men, we know least, and talk most.”

— Homer

442. “The natural thing, my lord, men and women joined.”

— Homer

443. “Odysseus is a migrant, but he is also a political and military leader, a strategist, a poet, a loving husband and father, an adulterer, a homeless person, an athlete, a disabled cripple, a soldier with a traumatic past, a pirate, thief and liar, a fugitive, a colonial invader, a home owner, a sailor, a construction worker, a mass murderer, and a war hero.”

— Homer

444. “Dreams are sent by God.”

— Homer

445. “Bad herdsmen waste the flocks which thou hast left behind.”

— Homer

446. “But curb thou the high spirit in thy breast, for gentle ways are best, and keep aloof from sharp contentions.”

— Homer

447. “I am going to stand against him now, though his hands are like flame, though his hands are like flame, and his heart like the shining of iron.”

— Homer

448. “The Simpsons are going to Delaware!”

— Homer

449. “And woe succeeds woe.”

— Homer

450. “And they die an equal death – the idler and the man of mighty deeds.”

— Homer