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Achilles glared at him and answered, "Fool, prate not to me about covenants. There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other out and out an through. Therefore there can be no understanding between you and me, nor may there be any covenants between us, till one or other shall fall.
Homer -
Why cover the same ground again? ... It goes against my grain to repeat a tale told once, and told so clearly.
Homer
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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 -
Even his griefs are a joy long after to one that remembers all that he wrought and endured.
Homer -
Even a fool learns something once it hits him.
Homer -
But you, Achilles,/ There is not a man in the world more blest than you--/ There never has been, never will be one./ Time was, when you were alive, we Argives/ honored you as a god, and now down here, I see/ You Lord it over the dead in all your power./ So grieve no more at dying, great Achilles.’ I reassured the ghost, but he broke out protesting,/ ‘No winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus!/ By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man--/ Some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive—than rule down here over all the breathless dead.
Homer -
So, the gods don't hand out all their gifts at once, not build and brains and flowing speech to all. One man may fail to impress us with his looks but a god can crown his words with beauty, charm, and men look on with delight when he speaks out. Never faltering, filled with winning self-control, he shines forth at assembly grounds and people gaze at him like a god when he walks through the streets. Another man may look like a deathless one on high but there's not a bit of grace to crown his words. Just like you, my fine, handsome friend.
Homer -
Always to be best, and distinguished above the rest.
Homer
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Marge, when I join an underground cult I expect a little support from my family.
Homer -
Immortals are never alien to one another.
Homer -
Nothing shall I, while sane, compare with a friend.
Homer -
Be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.
Homer -
A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time.
Homer -
And here I am using my own lungs like a sucker.
Homer
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I wish that strife would vanish away from among gods and mortals, and gall, which makes a man grow angry for all his great mind, that gall of anger that swarms like smoke inside of a man's heart and becomes a thing sweeter to him by far than the dripping of honey.
Homer -
No one can hurry me down to Hades before my time, but if a man's hour is come, be he brave or be he coward, there is no escape for him when he has once been born.
Homer -
Trying is the first step toward failure.
Homer -
Look now how mortals are blaming the gods, for they say that evils come from us, but in fact they themselves have woes beyond their share because of their own follies.
Homer -
…but there they lay, sprawled across the field, craved far more by the vultures than by wives.
Homer -
All deaths are hateful to miserable mortals, but the most pitiable death of all is to starve.
Homer
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Strife and Confusion joined the fight, along with cruel Death, who seized one wounded man while still alive and then another man without a wound, while pulling the feet of one more corpse out from the fight. The clothes Death wore around her shoulders were dyed red with human blood.
Homer -
It is equally bad when one speeds on the guest unwilling to go, and when he holds back one who is hastening. Rather one should befriend the guest who is there, but speed him when he wishes.
Homer -
Noble and manly music invigorates the spirit, strengthens the wavering man, and incites him to great and worthy deeds.
Homer -
The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for.
Homer