Madeline Miller Quotes

“He smiled, and his face was like the sun.”

“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.”

“This, I say. This and this. The way his hair looked in summer sun. His face when he ran. His eyes, solemn as an owl at lessons. This and this and this. So many moments of happiness, crowding forward.”

“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.”

“As for the goddess’s answer, I did not care. I would have no need of her. I did not plan to live after he was gone.”

“Divine blood flows differently in each god-born child.”

“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.”

“We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.”

“We reached for each other, and I thought of how many nights I had lain awake loving him in silence.”

“Afterwards, when Agamemnon would ask him when he would confront the prince of Troy, he would smile his most guileless, maddening smile. “What has Hector ever done to me?”

“When he died, all things soft and beautiful and bright would be buried with him.”

“There are no bargains between lion and men. I will kill you and eat you raw.”

“I feel like I could eat the world raw.”

“Chiron had said once that nations were the most foolish of mortal inventions. "No man is worth more than another, wherever he is from.”

“I am made of memories.”

“I stopped watching for ridicule, the scorpion's tail hidden in his words. He said what he meant; he was puzzled if you did not. Some people might have mistaken this for simplicity. But is it not a sort of genius to cut always to the heart?”

“Bring him back to me,' he told them.”

“He is more worth to you, perhaps. But the stranger is someone else's friend and brother. So which life is more important?”

“There was more to say, but for once we did not say it. There would be other times for speaking, tonight and tomorrow and all the days after that. He let go of my hand.”

“You can use a spear for a walking stick, but it will not change its nature.”

“It was almost like fear, in the way it filled me, rising in my chest. It was almost like tears, in how swiftly it came. But it was neither of those, buoyant where they were heavy, bright were they dull.”

“Achilles’ eyes lift. They are bloodshot and dead. “I wish he had let you all die.”

“It is right to seek peace for the dead. You and I both know there is no peace for those who live after.”

“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 am air and thought and can do nothing.”

“Patroclus, he says, Patroclus. Patroclus. Over and over until it is sound only.”

“We are all there, goddess and mortal and the boy who was both.”

“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.”

“What is admired in one generation is abhorred in another. We cannot say who will survive the holocaust of memory… We are men only, a brief flare of the torch.”

“… nothing could eclipse the stain of his dirty, mortal mediocrity.”

“When I am dead, I charge you to mingle our ashes and bury us together.”

“Go," She says. "He waits for you.”

“Bury us, and mark our names above. Let us be free.”

“I almost did not come, because I did not want to leave it."
He smiled. "Now I know how to make you follow me everywhere."
The sun sank below Pelion's ridges, and we were happy.”

“A surety rose in me, lodged in my throat. I will never leave him. It will be this, always, for as long as he will let me.”

“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.”

“Achilles weeps. He cradles me, and will not eat, nor speak a word other than my name.”

“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.”

“Her mouth was a gash of red, like the torn-open stomach of a sacrifice, bloody and oracular. Behind it her teeth shone sharp and white as bone.”

“Achilles' eyes were bright in the firelight, his face drawn sharply by the flickering shadows. I would know is in dark or disguise, told myself. I would know it even in madness.”

“This is what Achilles will feel like when he is old. And then I remembered: he will never be old.”

“There is this too.” His hand was ceaseless now. “I know I have told you of this.”

I closed my eyes. “Tell me again,” I said.”

“and when he moved it was like watching oil spread across a lake, smooth and fluid, almost vicious”

“Those seconds, half seconds, that the line of our gaze connected, were the only moment in my day that I felt anything at all.”

“The flames surround me, and I feel myself slipping further from life, thinning to only the faintest shiver in the air. I yearn for the darkness and silence of the underworld, where I can rest.”

“Perhaps he simply assumed: a bitterness of habit, of boy after boy trained for music and medicine, and unleashed for murder.”

“Achilles makes a sound like choking. “There are no bargains between lions and men. I will kill you and eat you raw.” His spearpoint flies in a dark whirlwind, bright as the evening-star, to catch the hollow at Hector’s throat.”

“The sound was pure and sweet as water, bright as lemons.”

“The rosy gleam of his lip, the fevered gleam of his eyes. There was not a line anywhere on his face, nothing creased or graying; all crisp. He was spring, golden and bright. Envious death would drink his blood, and grow young again.”

“There is no honour in betraying your friends.”

“That is — your friend?"
"Philtatos," Achilles replied, sharply. Most beloved.”