“One must live as if it would be forever, and as if one might die each moment. Always both at once.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“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.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“I thought, There goes my lord, whom I was born to follow. I have found a King.
And, I said to myself, looking after him as he walked away, I will have him, if I die for it.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“To hate excellence is to hate the gods.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“We Persians have a saying that one should deliberate serious matters first drunk, then sober.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“Alexander, of whom men tell many legends, lived by his own. Achilles must have Patroklos. He might love his Briseis; but Patroklos was the friend till death. At their tombs in Troy, Alexander and Hephaistion had sacrificed together. Wound Patroklos, and Achilles will have your blood.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“It is something, I thought, when a king can put a courtesan to the blush.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“Never mind, mother, you weren’t far out; he is Alexander too.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“That there are fashions in admiration and denigration is inevitable; they should not however be followed at the expense of truth.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“I doubt he’d ever in his life lain down with anyone for whom he had not felt some kind of fondness. He needed love as a palm tree needs water, all his life long: from armies, from cities, from conquered enemies, nothing was enough. It laid him open to false friends, as anyone will tell you. Well, for all that, no man is made a god when he is dead and can do no harm, without love. He needed love and never forgave its betrayal, which he had no understanding of. For he himself, if it was given him with a whole heart, never misused it, nor despised the giver. He took it gratefully, and felt bound by it.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“Great anguish lies in wait for those who long too greatly.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“People like me are blamed for curiosity; having lost part of our lives, we are apt to fill the gap from the lives of others. In this I am like the rest, and make no pretences.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“When we were up in the hills, he took me for an early ride, to taste, as he said, the clean air of Persia once again. I breathed it and said, “Al’skander, we are home.” “Truly. I too.” He looked towards the folded ranges, whose peaks had had the first snowfalls. “I’d say this only to you; shut it in your heart. Macedon was my father’s country. This is mine.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“Am I beautiful? It is for you alone. Say that you love me, for without you I cannot live.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“I said, 'We have dreamed, dear friend. Another time, we might awaken. Let it be a dream forgotten at morning.' That seemed a better way of saying it than, 'Never remind me of this, for fear I should stick a knife in you.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“If anyone has the right to be measured by the standards of his own time, it is Alexander. Hermann Bengston, The Greeks and the Persians”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“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 own littleness, and make them believe in that, kill more than he ever will in all his wars.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“Is he weeping?" said the one with the softest heart.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“Do I grudge my lord the herb that will heal him, because another gathers it? No, let him be healed.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“All these years you have made a boy of him. But with me, he shall be a man”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
“They say women forget the pain of childbirth. Well, they are in nature's hand. No hand took mine. I was a body of pain in an earth and sky of darkness. It will take death to make me forget.”
― Mary Renault, quote from The Persian Boy
Mary Renault
Born place: in London, England, The United Kingdom
Born date September 4, 1905
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“There comes a time when you just have to put on some mascara and pull yourself together.”
― Emery Lord, quote from The Names They Gave Us
“The attitude behind your words is as important as the words themselves.”
― Adele Faber, quote from How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk
“Según los registros fósiles, los neandertales aparecieron entre hace 300.000 y 400.000 años y existieron hasta hace unos 30.000 años.”
― quote from Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes
“Then my hair was loose and his hands were buried in it, and he was kissing me so deeply his fangs grazed my teeth and I tasted blood. I was acutely aware of every inch of my body that was touching every inch of his: his forearm grazing the side of my neck, his hands cradling my skull, his mouth so soft yet ”
“hard, his powerful chest against the only part of me that wasn’t muscle, one of his thighs slipping between my legs, making my knees tremble and nearly buckle.
He kissed like he did everything, with exquisite skill, passion, and one hundred percent focus. Here was where Ryodan shed his aloof businessman attire, his cool facade, and came to life with the heat and intensity of a thousand suns. And I realized that was what had so entranced me on Level 4—I’d seen him drop all his guards and fuck like a man on fire, with nothing held back. Open, unguarded, just like he’d been when we’d talked.
Ryodan, controlled, is formidably fascinating.
Ryodan, open, is indescribably addictive.”
― Karen Marie Moning, quote from Feversong
“imagined what I’d do when I reached this stage. It now seems absurd, but I suppose I thought I’d find a town labelled ‘Ginestlay’ and that would be that; I’d know I’d found home. But nothing else had worked out as I thought it would – this town was well outside my search boundary, and after all my careful planning and methodical efforts I’d found it by accident. It”
― quote from A Long Way Home
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The MezzanineBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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