Mary Renault

When we serve the great, they are our destiny.

— Mary Renault

By her shining and her power he knew her.

— Mary Renault

“I saw death come for you, and I had no philosophy.”

— Mary Renault

Longing performs all things

— Mary Renault

death was the price of life.

— Mary Renault

“It's not what one is, it's what one does with it.”

— Mary Renault

I was a king and a king's heir and now I am a slave.

— Mary Renault

To hate excellence is to hate the gods.

— Mary Renault

“I could not tell what I should fill even this one day with; and there were years ahead. She”

— Mary Renault

Love is a boaster at heart, who cannot hide the stolen horse without giving a glimpse of the bridle.

— Mary Renault

Go with your fate, but not beyond. Beyond leads to dark places.

— Mary Renault

A man is at his youngest when he thinks he is a man, not yet realizing that his actions must show it.

— Mary Renault

There is madness in youth, but sometimes a god inspires it.

— Mary Renault

Everything is change; and you cannot step twice into the same river.

— Mary Renault

How can people trust the harvest, unless they see it sown?

— Mary Renault

Never destroy without thought your enemy's pretences; they are usually your best weapon against him.

— Mary Renault

“I wanted someone to follow, I wanted him to be brave. But he wants to be brave for me; and no one…

— Mary Renault

What keeps the democracy alive at all but the hatred of excellence; the desire of the base to see no head higher…

— Mary Renault

“Speak for me, Nikeratos. Someone's soul is always listening." Someone's always is, I suppose, if one only knew. Plato never forgot it.”

— Mary Renault

“For I had felt too much and reasoned too little, hearing what I was ready to hear, not what had been said.…

— Mary Renault

“That there are fashions in admiration and denigration is inevitable; they should not however be followed at the expense of truth.”

— Mary Renault

“He stood between death and life as between night and morning, and thought with a soaring rapture, 'I am not afraid.”

— Mary Renault

It is better to believe in men too rashly, and regret, than believe too meanly. Men could be more than they are,…

— Mary Renault

“They say women forget the pain of childbirth. Well, they are in nature's hand. No hand took mine. I was a body…

— Mary Renault

“It had come to him that no one would ever look from these eyes but he: that among all the lives, numerous…

— Mary Renault

“Nothing will change, Alexias. No, that is false; there is change whenever there is life, and already we are not the two…

— Mary Renault

“Alexander offered him (Aristotle)a hand to mount the gangplank, and tried the effect of a smile. When the man returned it, it…

— Mary Renault

“I came for the cause. Since I could not help, at least don't let me remember that I hindered it. I've learned…

— Mary Renault

“(Alexander)'Sometimes I forget all this for months on end. Sometimes I think of it day and night. Sometimes I think, unless I…

— Mary Renault

Each man in his life honors, and imitates as well as he can, that god to whose choir he belonged, while he…

— Mary Renault

Tell a man what he may not sing and he is still half free; even all free, if he never wanted to…

— Mary Renault

Do not believe that others will die, not you… I have wrestled with Thanatos knee to knee and I know how death…

— Mary Renault

“Presently, he looked at the people standing round and said, "You have leave to go." They bowed out. When the lads behind…

— Mary Renault

“Don't talk so, Lysis. I'm sure you kept your head much better than I did." He smiled, and quoted a certain phrase,…

— Mary Renault

“Go in peace," I said to him; "bear no ill-will to me, for Necessity yields to no man: and do not complain…

— Mary Renault

“You wished for me, Athenians; I am here. Do not question me, do not hurt me; I am the wish sprung from…

— Mary Renault

“Men are seldom helpless against their own evil wishes, and in their souls they know it. But common men love flattery not…

— Mary Renault

“I looked at him, tipping down the coarse wine like a man who expects to put up with worse. I felt I…

— Mary Renault

“You mustn't get so upset about what you feel, Spud. No one's a hundred per cent consistent all the time. We might…

— Mary Renault

“After some years of muddled thinking on the subject, he suddenly saw quite clearly what it was he had been running away…

— Mary Renault