WIST

Even the poorest fighters turn into brave men when they stand side by side.

Homer (fl. 9th-10th C. BC) Greek author
The Iliad, 13.235 (tr. E. Rieu (1950))

And unextinguish’d laughter shakes the skies.

Homer (fl. 9th-10th C. BC) Greek author
The Iliad, Book I, l. 771 [tr. Pope]
Pope gives the same translation in Homer's Odyssey, Book VIII, l. 366.

Thou know’st the o’er-eager vehemence of youth,
How quick in temper, and in judgement weak.

Homer (fl. 9th-10th C. BC) Greek author
The Illiad, Book 23, ll. 667-78 [tr. Derby (1865)]
Alt. trans.:

• "Thou dost know / The faults to which the young are ever prone; / The will is quick to act, the judgment weak" [W. C. Bryant (1905)]
• "It is easy for a youngster to go wrong from hastiness and lack of thought." [R. Graves, The Anger of Achilles (1959)]
• "You know a young man may go out of bounds: / his wits are nimble, but his judgment slight." [R. Fitzgerald (1974)]

What a lamentable thing it is that men should blame the gods as the source of their troubles, when it is their own wickedness that brings them suffering worse than any which Destiny allots them.

Homer (fl. 9th-10th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey, 1.32 (tr. E. Rieu (1946))

It is equally offensive to speed a guest who would like to stay and to detain one who is anxious to leave.

Homer (fl. 9th-10th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey, 15.69 [Menelaus to Telemachus]

It is not right to glory in the slain.

Homer (fl. 9th-10th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey, bk. 22, l. 412 [tr. Palmer (1929)]
Alt. trans. [Hull (1978)]: "It isn't right to gloat over the dead."

For too much rest itself becomes a pain.

Homer (fl. 9th-10th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey, Book 15, l. 429 [tr. Pope]

The ruins of himself! now worn away
With age, yet still majestic in decay.

Homer (fl. 9th-10th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey, Book 24, l. 271 [tr. Pope]

Jove weighs affairs of earth in dubious scales,
And the good suffers while the bad prevails.

Homer (fl. 9th-10th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey, Book VI, l. 229-30 [tr. Pope]