Quotes from Madeline Miller

the sea was hidden by the house's curve, but we could both hear it, the distant hiss of waves against sand.

Chiron had said once that nations were the most foolish of mortal inventions. "No man is worth more than another, wherever he is from.

he said what he meant; he was puzzled if you did not. some people might have mistaken this for simplicity. but is it not a sort of genius to always cut to the heart?

Und wie lautete dieser Gedanke? Dass mein ganzes Leben bisher aus trüben und tiefen Wassern bestanden hatte, aber dass ich nicht Teil dieser dunklen Fluten war. Ich war ein Geschöpf, das darin lebte.

They might permit a king to burn their fields or rape their daughters, as long as payment was made. But you did not touch a man's sons.

No había en el mundo palabras que yo quisiera oír más que las que él se callaba

But it was not kindness he lacked; it was interest. His gaze passed over her as if she were not there.

This wash is excellent, what is it?" "Thistle, artemisia, celery, sulfur. Magic.

Nos abrazamos mientras pensaba en cuántas noches había permanecido tendido despierto en aquella estancia, amándole en silencio.

It was enough to watch him win, to see the soles of his feet flashing as they kicked up sand, or the rise and fall of his shoulders as he pulled through the salt. It was enough.

He was tired of living among ashes,

Her limbs lift into the grey waves like the steady beats of wings.

A silence, in which I felt him moving deep among his memories.

Hair lit like honey in the sun, and within it, glints of gold - the circlet of a prince.

La culpa me inmovilizaba en la cama como si se tratara de un ancla. Solo me hizo mover el recuerdo hiriente de Quirón. «No renuncies a las cosas con tanta facilidad como hiciste una vez».

Ve con cuidado mañana, eres el mejor de los hombres, el mejor de los mirmidones.

I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world

embossed with the story of the princess Danae. Zeus had wooed her in a shower of golden light, and she had borne him Perseus, Gorgon-slayer, second only to Heracles among our heroes.

They hurried back to their ship, strained at their oars, eager to vanish over the horizon. I watched until the moment they winked out, like a snuffed flame.

She turned her back to me and was silent. A moment passed. I could hear the sound of her breaths, drawn slowly, so I would not guess she was crying. I knew the trick. I had done it myself.

Her skin, we suddenly remembered, was rumored to be gilded, her eyes dark and shining as the slick obsidian that we traded our olives for.

Eravamo come dei all'alba del mondo e la nostra felicità era così abbagliante che non potevamo vedere altro che noi.

Ero cresciuta ai piedi di mio padre e sapevo riconoscere lo sfoggio di potere quando me lo ritrovavo davanti.

I had fed off that look once, when I had been starving and thought such crumbs a feast.