Quotes to inspire and reflect

All strangers and beggars are from Zeus, and a gift, though small, is precious.

We are quick to flare up, we race of men on the earth.

May the gods grant you all things which your heart desires, and may they give you a husband and a home and gracious concord, for there is nothing greater and better than this -when a husband and wife keep a household in oneness of mind, a great woe to their enemies and joy to their friends, and win high renown.

A small rock holds back a great wave.

All men have need of the gods.

The minds of the everlasting gods are not changed suddenly.

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.

A young man is embarrassed to question an older one.

You ought not to practice childish ways, since you are no longer that age.

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

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.

By their own follies they perished, the fools.

The fates have given mankind a patient soul.

Thus have the gods spun the thread for wretched mortals: that they live in grief while they themselves are without cares; for two jars stand on the floor of Zeus of the gifts which he gives, one of evils and another of blessings.

It is entirely seemly for a young man killed in battle to lie mangled by the bronze spear. In his death all things appear fair. But when dogs shame the gray head and gray chin and nakedness of an old man killed, it is the most piteous thing that happens among wretched mortals.

Miserable mortals who, like leaves, at one moment flame with life, eating the produce of the land, and at another moment weakly perish.

Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct; they are matters of education, and like most great things, you must cultivate a taste for them.

I too shall lie in the dust when I am dead, but now let me win noble renown.

Once harm has been done, even a fool understands it.

The outcome of the war is in our hands; the outcome of words is in the council.

Of men who have a sense of honor, more come through alive than are slain, but from those who flee comes neither glory nor any help.

It is not unseemly for a man to die fighting in defense of his country.

You will certainly not be able to take the lead in all things yourself, for to one man a god has given deeds of war, and to another the dance, to another lyre and song, and in another wide-sounding Zeus puts a good mind.

It is not possible to fight beyond your strength, even if you strive.

There is a strength in the union even of very sorry men.

There is a fullness of all things, even of sleep and love.

It was built against the will of the immortal gods, and so it did not last for long.

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.

He lives not long who battles with the immortals, nor do his children prattle about his knees when he has come back from battle and the dread fray.

A generation of men is like a generation of leaves; the wind scatters some leaves upon the ground, while others the burgeoning wood brings forth - and the season of spring comes on. So of men one generation springs forth and another ceases.

The glorious gifts of the gods are not to be cast aside.

A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.

Whoever obeys the gods, to him they particularly listen.

A councilor ought not to sleep the whole night through, a man to whom the populace is entrusted, and who has many responsibilities.

He knew the things that were and the things that would be and the things that had been before.

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

I believe that what woman resents is not so much giving herself in pieces as giving herself purposelessly.

Education is life itself.

When one is grateful for something too good for common thanks, writing is less unsatisfactory than speech-one does not, at least, hear how inadequate the words are.

Courage means going against majority opinion in the name of the truth.

Nothing in the world makes people so afraid as the influence of independent-minded people.

I foresee the time when industry shall no longer denude the forests which require generations to mature, nor use up the mines which were ages in the making, but shall draw its materials largely from the annual produce of the fields.

The difference between God and the historians consists above all in the fact that God cannot alter the past.

While my interest in natural history has added very little to my sum of achievement, it has added immeasurably to my sum of enjoyment in life.

To be proud of virtue is to poison oneself with the antidote.

in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work.

In the hearts and minds of the people, the grapes of wrath were growing heavy for the vintage.

Think wrongly if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.