Madeline Miller Quotes
Perhaps it is the greatest grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.
There is no law that gods must be fair, Achilles,” Chiron said. “And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone. Do you think?
I shift, an infinitesimal movement, towards him. It is like the leap from a waterfall. I do not know, until then, what I am going to do.
I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.
She wants you to be a god," I told him. "I know." His face twisted with embarrassment, and in spite of itself my heart lightened. It was such a boyish response. And so human. Parents, everywhere.
He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature.
In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.
and her skin shone luminous and impossibly pale, as if it drank light from the moon.
My mind is filled with cataclysm and apocalypse. I wish for earthquakes, eruptions, flood.
Chiron had said once that nations were the most foolish of mortal inventions. "No man is worth more than another, wherever he is from.
We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.
I lay back and tried not to think of the minutes passing. Just yesterday we had a wealth of them. Now each was a drop of heartsblood lost.
He is more worth to you, perhaps. But the stranger is someone else's friend and brother. So which life is more important?
and when he moved it was like watching oil spread across a lake, smooth and fluid, almost vicious
Indeed, he seemed utterly unaware of his effect on the boys around him.
When I am dead, I charge you to mingle our ashes and bury us together.
That is — your friend?" "Philtatos, " Achilles replied, sharply. Most beloved.
He looked different in sleep, beautiful but cold as moonlight. I found myself wishing he would wake so that I might watch the life return.
When he died, all things soft and beautiful and bright would be buried with him.
And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.
She wants you to be a god, " I told him."I know." His face twisted with embarrassment, and in spite of itself my heart lightened. It was such a boyish response. And so human. Parents, everywhere.
Wealth and reputation were the things our people had always killed for.
He looked different in sleep, beautiful but cold as moonlight.
Achilles weeps. He cradles me, and will not eat, nor speak a word other than my name.
He knew, but it was not enough. The sorrow was so large it threatened to tear through my skin. When he died, all things swift and beautiful and bright would be buried with him.
Above us, the constellations spun and the moon paced her weary course. We lay stricken and sleepless as the hours passed.
There is no law that gods must be fair, Achilles, ” Chiron said. “And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone. Do you think?
Exile might satisfy the anger of the living, but it did not appease the dead.
Patroclus, he says, Patroclus. Patroclus. Over and over until it is sound only.
Achilles’ eyes lift. They are bloodshot and dead. “I wish he had let you all die.
