“Men are seldom helpless against their own evil wishes, and in their souls they know it. But common men love flattery not less than tyrants, if anyone will sell it to them. If they are told that the struggle for… — Mary Renault Copy Share
The perpetual stream of human nature is formed into ever-changing shallows, eddies, falls and pools by the land over which it passes. Perhaps the only real value of history lies in considering this endlessly varied play between the essence and… — Mary Renault Copy Share Image
You can make an audience see nearly anything, if you yourself believe in it. — Mary Renault Copy Share Image
“I looked at him, tipping down the coarse wine like a man who expects to put up with worse. I felt I was looking my last at the lad I still remembered. I was right. When I saw him again, it was five years later, and not in Athens. He was tanned like the thong of a javelin, and as… — Mary Renault Copy Share
“For I had felt too much and reasoned too little, hearing what I was ready to hear, not what had been said. There” — Mary Renault Copy Share Image
“Go in peace," I said to him; "bear no ill-will to me, for Necessity yields to no man: and do not complain of me to our mother, for her blood is on your head as well as mine. If the gods had not forbidden it, my brother, I would put you to sleep before I left you, for night comes… — Mary Renault Copy Share
There is only one kind of shock worse than the totally unexpected: the expected for which one has refused to prepare. — Mary Renault Copy Share Image
A man is at his youngest when he thinks he is a man, not yet realizing that his actions must show it. — Mary Renault Copy Share Image
“You mustn't get so upset about what you feel, Spud. No one's a hundred per cent consistent all the time. We might like to be. We can plan our lives along certain lines. But you know, there's no future in screwing down all the pressure valves and smashing in the gauge. You can do it for a bit and then… — Mary Renault Copy Share
“It is better to believe in men too rashly, and regret, than believe too meanly. Men could be more than they are, if they would try for it. He has shown them that. How many have tried, because of him? Not only those I have seen; there will be men to come. Those who look in mankind only for their… — Mary Renault Copy Share
“Hephaistion had known for many ages that if a god should offer him one gift in all his lifetime, he would choose this. Joy… — Mary Renault Copy Share Image
“It is the mark of little men to like only what they know; one step beyond, and they feel the black cold of chaos.” — Mary Renault Copy Share Image
“His mouth felt cold to mine ; he neither opened his eyes, nor spoke, nor moved. I said in my heart, "Too late I… — Mary Renault Copy Share Image
