Quotes from Mary Renault

Laurie stood casting his long shadow on the room behind him, silent in a grief and wonder too deep for tears, that life was so divided and irreconcilable, and the good so implacably the enemy of the best.

Apollo, who understands all mysteries, says also, "Nothing too much." He is knowledge, Theseus; but She is what he knows.

We started off, he and I, and the girl between us. She shivered as the cold struck her; he pulled the sheepskins higher, and put his arm with a fold of his cloak about her shoulders. I felt a sudden rush of the past upon me; for a moment grief pierced me like a winter night; yet it came to me like an old grief, I had suffered it long since and now it was behind me.

It can be good to be given what you want; it can be better, in the end, never to have it proved to you that this was what you wanted.

Fui felice di sfoggiare quel poco che sapevo; e poiché mi sentivo già a mio agio con lui, gli domandai perché mai un vecchio volesse frequentare la scuola. Non si risentì; rispose che per un vecchio non imparare ciò che avrebbe potuto renderlo migliore era assai più disonorevole che per i ragazzi, dato che aveva avuto tutto il tempo di comprenderne l'importanza".

the classic put-down to a chatty barber: "How do you like your hair cut, sir?" "In silence.

Encontrar a Fedro guiando a Sócrates casi al mismo sitio, quizá lo era, le había impresionado profundamente. El árbol de amplia copa, la verde ladera en que recostarse, el agua fría al pie; sólo faltaban las ofrendas votivas y el santuario. «Concededme ser hermoso por dentro ?había suplicado Sócrates? y haced que las cosas exteriores e interiores se reconcilien».

Each generation has its own dream of beauty. I have lived long enough to watch it change. Just then, he was what all sculptors were reaching after, and only the great achieved.

The living need the truth, before rumor pollutes it.

I know I thought of many things: of death, and fate, and what the gods want of man; how far a man can move within his moira, or, if all is determined, what makes one strive; and whether one can be a king without a kingdom.

The gods, in kindness to mankind, have put in most men's hearts the wish to be loved and honored, even when they greatly wish for power. Power is the test. Some, once they have it, are content to buy the show of liking, and punish those who withhold it; then you have a despot. But some keep a true eye for how they seem to others, and care about it, which holds them back from much mischief.

and Alexander was nothing if not resourceful. He had had the legs of her chair cut down.

On the grave-mound of Leonidas, with its marble lion, he laid a garland. "I don't think," he remarked after, "that he was really much of a general. If he'd made sure the Phokian troops understood their orders, the Persians could never have turned the pass. These southern states never work together. But one must honor a man as brave as that.

Hephaistion was thinking how fragile his rib cage seemed, how terrible were the warring desires to cherish and to crush it.

She had seen, at last, her real enemy. Not the terrible old woman on the black horse; she could be terrible only because of him, the glowing ghost, the lion-maned head on the silver drachmas, directing her fate from his golden bier.

I came for the cause. Since I could not help, at least don't let me remember that I hindered it. I've learned how to manage on the ship; it will be nothing, after all this. Goodbye, Niko. You have made me a truer philosopher. Go with God.

Some would take nothing, like Perdiccas; whose inclusion suggests, in spite of Ptolemy, that he did the right thing at Thebes. "What are you keeping for yourself?" he asked. "Hope," said Alexander, to which Perdiccas' prophetic answer was, "That I'll share.

I don't know what more there is to say, except this: that since one can't refuse to know oneself, and it must have happened eventually, I would rather it was through you than anyone else.

Man born of woman cannot outrun his fate. Better then not to question the Immortals, nor when they have spoken to grieve one's heart in vain. A bound is set to our knowing, and wisdom is not to search beyond it. Men are only men.

Either we shall find what we are seeking, or at least we shall free ourselves from the persuasion that we know what we do not know.

Friendship is perfect when virtuous men love the good in one another; for virtue gives more delight than beauty, and is untouched by time.

redresser of

People who have earned no pride in themselves, are content to be proud of their cities through other men.

That," I said, "is the business of the gods, who made us." "Yes, but for what? We ought to be good for it, whatever it is. How can we live, until we know?" I gazed at him; such desperate words, yet he looked all lit from within. He saw I was paying attention; that was enough to draw him on.