The Persian Boy Quotes

“One must live as if it would be forever, and as if one might die each moment. Always both at once.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“To hate excellence is to hate the gods.”
― Mary Renault, 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, 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, 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, The Persian Boy

“We Persians have a saying that one should deliberate serious matters first drunk, then sober.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“It is something, I thought, when a king can put a courtesan to the blush.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“Am I beautiful? It is for you alone. Say that you love me, for without you I cannot live.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“Is he weeping?" said the one with the softest heart.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“Great anguish lies in wait for those who long too greatly.”
― Mary Renault, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, The Persian Boy

“All these years you have made a boy of him. But with me, he shall be a man”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“The world had broken; the pieces lay like shattered gold, spoil for the strongest.”
― Mary Renault, 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, 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, The Persian Boy

“That is the life of the gods, who only seem to die like the sun at his setting. But do not ride too fast across the sky and leave us all in darkness.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“Oh, yes. I thought the god had more left for me to do; but one must be ready.” He touched my hand; his thanks had been wordless, but none the worse for that. “One must live as if it would be forever, and as if one might die each moment. Always both at once.” I answered, “That is the life of the gods, who only seem to die, like the sun at his setting. But do not ride too fast across the sky, and leave us all in darkness.” “One thing,” he said, “I’ve taken to heart from this. The water in the plains is poison. Do as I mean to do, and stick to wine.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“With such follies the young, to whom each joy or trouble seems eternal, will concern themselves while the sky is about to fall.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“The future no man knows; the past has been, now and forever.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“But sometimes his face would change, as if sorrow touched his shoulder, saying, “Had you forgotten me?”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“The sons of dreams outlive the sons of seed.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“Let the hand of discretion cover the wise mouth.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

“There are always men who take their own measure against greatness, and hate it not for what it is, but for what they are. They can envy even the dead. So much Alexander saw. He did not understand, since it was not in him, the power such men have to rouse in others the sleeping envy they once had a decent shame of; to turn respect for excellence into hate. Nor did Kallisthenes understand it in himself. Vanity begets it, vanity covers it up.”
― Mary Renault, The Persian Boy