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1 " Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man. "
― Homer , The Odyssey
2 " [I]t is the wine that leads me on,the wild winethat sets the wisest man to singat the top of his lungs,laugh like a fool – it drives theman to dancing... it eventempts him to blurt out storiesbetter never told. "
3 " Take courage, my heart: you have been through worse than this. Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this. "
4 " For my part I have no joy in tears after dinnertime. There will always be a new dawn tomorrow. Yet I can have no objection to tears for any mortal who dies and goes to his destiny. And this is the only consolation we wretched mortals can give, to cut our hair and let the tears roll down our faces. "
5 " 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. "
6 " I would disapprove of another hospitable man who was excessive in friendship, as of one excessive in hate. In all things balance is better. "
7 " Iron has powers to draw a man to ruin "
8 " Come then, put away your sword in its sheath, and let us two go up into my bed so that, lying together in the bed of love, we may then have faith and trust in each other. "
9 " No finer, greater gift in the world than that: When man and woman possess their home, two minds, two hearts that work as one. Despair to their enemies, a joy to all their friends. Their own best claim to glory. "
10 " And empty words are evil. "
11 " but sing no more this bitter tale that wears my heart away "
12 " For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother "
13 " What a lamentable thing it is that men should blame the gods and regard us as the source of their troubles, when it is their own wickedness that brings them sufferings worse than any which destiny allots them. "
14 " 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. "
15 " But they could neither of them persuade me, for there is nothing dearer to a man than his own country and his parents, and however splendid a home he may have in a foreign country, if it be far from father or mother, he does not care about it. "
16 " Endure, my heart; yea, a baser thing thou once didst bear "
17 " Heaven has appointed us dwellers on earth a time for all things. "
18 " There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep. "
19 " ...an irresistible sleep fell deeply on his eyes, the sweetest, soundest oblivion, still as the sleep of death itself... "
20 " My heart is hardy, for I have suffered much on the seas and the battlefield: this will be only something more. But a ravenous belly cannot be hid, damn the thing. It gives a world of trouble to men, makes them fit out fleets of ships and scour the barren sea, to bring misery on their enemies. "
― W.H.D. Rouse , The Odyssey
