Madeline Miller: Trending quotes (page 2)

“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.”

“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.”