Odyssey Quotes

“And now, tell me and tell me true. Where have you been wandering, and in what countries have you travelled? Tell us of the peoples themselves, and of their cities—who were hostile, savage and uncivilised, and who, on the other hand, hospitable and humane.”

“God of the golden wand, why have you come? A beloved, honored friend, but it’s been so long, your visits much too rare. Tell me what’s on your mind. I’m eager to do it, whatever I can do . . . whatever can be done.”

“But I will gladly advise him -- I’ll hide nothing--”

“Her gifts were mixed with good and evil both.”

“Sitting, still, weeping, his eyes never dry, his sweet life flowing away with the tears he wept for his foiled journey home.”

“So, surrender to sleep at last. What a misery, keeping watch through the night, wide awake -- you’ll soon come up from under all your troubles.”

“Good luck to you, even so. Farewell! But if you only knew, down deep, what pains are fated to fill your cup before you reach that shore.”

“But the great leveler, Death: not even the gods can defend a man, not even one they love, that day when fate takes hold and lays him out at last.”

“Captain, this is madness! High time you thought of your own home at last, if it really is your fate to make it back alive and reach your well-built house and native land.”

“Man is the vainest of all creatures that have their being upon earth.”

“For there is nothing better in this world than that man and wife should be of one mind in a house.”

“Quick, dear boy, come in, let me look at you, look to my heart’s content -- under my own roof, the rover home at last.”

“There is a time for making speeches, and a time for going to bed.”

“I swear by the greatest, grimmest oath that binds the happy gods.”

“Would that I were still young and strong as I was in those days, for then some one of you swineherds would give me a cloak both out of good will and for the respect due to a brave soldier; but now people look down upon me because my clothes are shabby.”

“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.”

“No need my unlucky one, to grieve here any longer, no, don’t waste your life away. Now I am willing heart and soul to send you off at last.”

“If only the gods are willing. They rule the vaulting skies. They’re stronger than I to plan and drive things home.”

“I won’t set foot on a raft until you show good faith, until you consent to swear, goddess, a binding oath you’ll never plot some new intrigue to harm me!”

“Never. All I have in mind and devise for you are the very plans I’d fashion for myself if I were in your straits.”

“My every impulse bends to what is right. Not iron, trust me, the heart with my breast. I am all compassion.”

“Nobody -- that’s my name. Nobody -- so my mother and father call me, all my friends.”

“But you, brave and adept from this day on . . . there’s hope that you will reach your goal . . . the journey that stirs you now is not far off.”

“Passage home? Never. Surely you’re plotting something else, goddess, urging me -- in a raft -- to cross the ocean’s mighty gulfs. So vast, so full of danger not even the deep-sea ships can make it through, swift as they are and buoyed up by the winds of Zeus himself.”

“Few sons are the equals of their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them.”