I will drink / Life to the lees.
-- Ulysses (Lines 6 – 7)

Importance: This quote uses a metaphor to reveal Ulysses's attitude towards life. The "lees" are the sediment left at the bottom of a glass of wine when all the liquor is gone. Here, Ulysses declares that he wants to consume so much of the experience the world has to offer that he will leave nothing but the dregs behind. This quote is important because it is the first direct declaration of that attitude, so central to the poem's narrator, and exemplary of Tennyson's style.

All times I have enjoy'd / Greatly, have suffer'd greatly.
-- Ulysses (Lines 7 – 8)

Importance: Here, Ulysses expounds on his attitude towards life. The good and the bad, the enjoyment and the suffering, are framed as grammatically equal here. Ulysses does not only want the good parts of life but wants to fully experience life as a combination of joy and pain.

I am become a...
-- Ulysses (Lines 11 – 12)