The Odyssey Quotes

You’re not always going to be the strongest or the fastest, so be the smartest.[quoting Odysseus]

You want to remember, but what if remembering destroys your happiness?[Calypso]Then it wasn’t real.[Odysseus]

You can’t win with a perfect defense. Draw the attack.[Eumaeus]How?[Telemachus]Hesitate. Open your belly to your opponent’s blade. Their attack becomes your chance.[Eumaeus]

What was the siren’s song?[Eurylochus]All the things you wanted to be. Then, all the things you wish you never wished for. It was the delicious itch you go to scratch. Then find it is under the skin and can’t reach it. So the delicious itch becomes unbearable. It told you what you most want is what you most can’t have. And what you most can’t have is what you already had and lost.[Odysseus]

The structure’s nothing. Without people’s respect for its meaning.[to Telemachus]

The power of a sacrifice is in the cost to the person making it.

The clearest view of a man is from below.

Love’s not a sacrifice.[Penelope]Of course it is.[Odysseus]

It’s not bad for a beggar.[Telemachus]No one’s born a beggar.[Odysseus]

In this world, a man does what he chooses. I do what I can.[to Telemachus]

Hunting’s nothing but fighting with stealth.

Don’t look for gods in men. You’ll just be disappointed.[to Telemachus]