“A man need not give only a big gift,
often you buy praise with a little;
with half a loaf and a tilted cup
I’ve got myself a companion.”
- This quote comes from stanza 52 of Hávamál (Sayings of the High One), an old poem which was preserved in the 13th-century Poetic Edda which was produced anonymously in Iceland. The translation is by Carolyne Larrington (Oxford University Press, 2014).