157 Quotes by Mary Renault

Longing performs all things

But it is not for the perfect vase or the polished gem to choose their owners.

All men seek esteem; the best by lifting themselves, which is hard to do, the rest by shoving others down, which is much easier.

Change is the sum of the universe, and what is of nature ought not to be feared. But one gives it hostages, and lays one's grief upon the gods. Sokrates is free, and would have taught me freedom. But I have yoked the immortal horse that draws the chariot with a horse of earth; and when the one falls, both are entangled in the traces.

The rightness of a thing isn't determined by the amount of courage it takes.

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

He sees himself in his lover as if in a mirror, not knowing whom he sees, And when they are together, he too is released from pain, and when apart, he longs as he himself is longed for; for reflected in his heart is love's image, which is love's answer. But he calls it, and believes it, not love but friendship...

Often beauty grows dull or common when speech breaks the mask ...

I should think more crimes have probably been committed by chaps with inferiority complexes trying to demonstrate their virility, than even for money.