157 Quotes by Mary Renault

His feelings were confused; he wanted to grasp till Alexander's very bones were somehow engulfed within himself, but knew this to be wicked and mad; he would kill anyone who harmed a hair of his head.

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

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

In his imagination the pages were printed not with their own paragraphs only, but with all that he himself had brought to them: it seemed as though he must be identified and revealed in them, beyond all pretence of detachment, as if they were a diary to which he had committed every secret of his heart.

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.

I'm not prepared to accept a standard which puts the whole of my emotional life on the plane of immorality.

There is only one kind of shock worse than the totally unexpected: the expected for which one has refused to prepare.

Men are better watching the seasons, and putting good into the earth, than running together in cities, where they listen all day to each other's noises and forgot the gods. Acharnai is quite far enough.

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.