630 Quotes by Madeline Miller

It was our weakness that drew the war out, not her strength.

Odysseus inclines his head. "True. But fame is a strange thing. Some men gain glory after they die, while others fade. What is admired in one generation is abhorred in another." He spread his broad hands. "We cannot say who will survive the holocaust of memory. Who knows?" He smiles. "Perhaps one day even I will be famous. Perhaps more famous than you.

What is that if not a bad life? Luring others to you, then turning from them?

There was a sort of innocence to him, I thought. I do not mean this as the poets mean it: a virtue to be broken by the story’s end, or else upheld at greatest cost. Nor do I mean that he was foolish or guileless. I mean that he was made only of himself, without the dregs that clog the rest of us.

Is she unhappy? But he would have laughed at such a mewling question, and he would have been right to. My witchcraft, the island, my lion, all of them sprang from her transformation. There was no honesty in regretting what had given me my life.

I could have stopped them," he said. The skin of his face was very pale; his voice was hoarse. "I was close enough. I could have saved her."I shook my head. "You could not have known."He buried his face in his hands and did not speak. I held him and whispered all the bits of broken comfort I could find.

Do not try to take my regret from me.

If they did not weep, I would not either.

He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature.