The Grass Crown Quotes

“His sudden and utterly overwhelming panic was over almost before it began; but not quickly enough. In the midst of his brief yet total terror, the King of Pontus shat himself. It went everywhere, solid faeces mixed with what seemed an incredible amount of more liquid bowel contents, a stinking brown mess all over the gold-encrusted purple cloth of his cushion, trickling down the legs of his throne, running down his own legs into the manes of the golden lions upon the flaps of his boots, pooling and plopping on the deck around his feet when he jumped up. And there was nowhere to go! He could not conceal it from the amazed eyes of his attendants and officers, he could not conceal it from the sailors below amidships who had looked up instinctively to make sure their King was safe.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Grass Crown

“Don't worry about my life. I can look after it. When I let it go, it will be because I have no further use for it”
― Colleen McCullough, The Grass Crown

“Preconceptions are almost always fatal to your chances.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Grass Crown

“What you do is far more significant than why you do it—that's a fact of life! Why you do a thing is solely balm for the self, why you do a thing cannot affect its outcome. The what is all that matters”
― Colleen McCullough, The Grass Crown

“There are no spoils in civil wars”
― Colleen McCullough, The Grass Crown

“Aurelia herself had no charm at all and despised those who had it, for she had seen how easily they got what they wanted, and how little they valued it once they had it. Charm was the mark of a lightweight, not a leader of men.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Grass Crown

“Look well. Remember what you see. Remember the expression on its face. They say that when a man's head is taken, his eyes still have sight. If you did not believe that in the past, you will in the future. That's a man who watched his own head hit the dust.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Grass Crown

“Always remember—whatever you've planned and no matter how complex your plan might be— be prepared to alter it in the twinkling of an eye! And here's another pearl of wisdom, boy. Keep your plan as simple as possible. Simple plans always work better than tactical monstrosities, if for no other reason than you, the general, cannot implement your plan without using the chain of command. And the chain of command gets vaguer the lower down and the farther away from the general it gets.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Grass Crown

“Our gods do not answer us directly, Princeps Senatus. If they are displeased they present us with some sort of phenomenon, and when they act they do so through the agency of men.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Grass Crown

“When in the company of the sun, be a cavern.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Grass Crown

“But love affairs pall, you know. They're only a way of exploring human nature if a strong attachment is lacking, which it mostly is. One looks for something, always hoping to find it. But then one day a realization dawns—that love affairs are more trouble than they're worth, that the elusive something cannot be found in this way.”
― Colleen McCullough, The Grass Crown