Cleopatra's Daughter Quotes

“And when that time comes, let's hope your friends outnumber your enemies.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“Even in the most wretched life, there’s hope.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“I'm not staring. I'm observing. . . . And what do you observe? . . . A brave young woman who has always fought for what was right, even when it was unpopular.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“...she refused to leave anything to someone else that she could do better herself.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“I don't think unhappiness is fated.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“You mean we won't get to run through burning buildings?" I could see he wanted to laugh, but instead he watched me intently. "What? Why are you staring at me?"
"I'm not staring. I'm observing."
I smiled through my tears. "And what do you observe?"
He brushed his lips against my ear. "A brave young woman who has always fought for what was right, even when it was unpopular. A woman who can't return to the land of her birth, but is wlcome to cross the seas and rebuild Alexandria in mine. And a woman who has suffered enough in Rome and deserves happiness for a change. Will you come to Mauretania and be my queen?"
He drew back to look at me, but I held him closer. "Yes."
"Just yes?"
I nodded and pressed my lips against his.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“What does she need with architecture?”
“The same thing my mother needed with eight languages,” I replied boldly. “She commanded the best diplomats in the world, but she refused to leave anything to someone else that she could do better herself.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“was impressed by Marcellus’s eagerness. Tomorrow he would be riding out with five legions to a war from which he might never return, yet there was only excitement in his voice. I thought of the dangers he would face and the painted Gallic fighters hiding in the thickly wooded passes. I was sure that Isis would never be so cruel as to abandon someone so young and filled with promise. But then why had she abandoned Ptolemy and Caesarion? Where had she been when Antyllus was murdered at the base of Caesar’s statue and my parents lost their kingdom to a thin, weak sapling of a man?”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“this is my advice: “Treat those of lower social rank as you would wish to be treated by those of higher social rank.” Seneca the Younger, in a letter to a friend”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter: A Novel

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter: A Novel

“Yes, they have. And once we die, what we leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” “Pericles.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“Our mother and father had a club. The Society of Inimitable Livers.” “And what did this society do?” she asked breathlessly. “They had banquets on ships and discussed literature with philosophers from around the world.” “Then they changed it to the Order of the Inseparable in Death,” I added, “when our father lost the Battle of Actium.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“There is no one more modest or loyal than Agrippa. He would never betray me,” Octavian said. “Neither would Prince Juba.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“My mother raised her chin. “Who are you?” she demanded. “Marcus Agrippa. Former consul of Rome and commander-in-chief of Caesar’s fleet.” Alexander looked across the chamber at me. Agrippa was the general who had defeated our father at Actium. He was the secret behind every one of Octavian’s military successes, and the man our father had feared above any other. His face was round, and although I knew from our father’s descriptions that he was already thirty-one or thirty-two, he looked much younger.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“If you are so worried that Roman culture will change, then stop living off the backs of your slaves, and start doing work for yourselves. Or perhaps you prefer to keep watching wagon trains of a thousand Gauls roll in. Perhaps you would rather condone the slave traders with their pretty Greeks. In which case, you will soon have a Rome in which no one is Roman. You can force them to speak Latin, to wear tunics and sandals, but blood will out.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“A religious people is a people with purpose. So if the grain fails, or the aqueducts turn muddy, it can be Jupiter’s fault, not his.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“This isn’t how I imagined our lives would be when I was Queen of Libya and you King of Armenia.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“Then he’d given Alexander the territories of Armenia, Media, and the unconquered empire of Parthia.”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter

“trunk. “Only you and Octavian can endure it. Our mother would never”
― Michelle Moran, Cleopatra's Daughter