Mary Renault

“There is only one real evil in the world: mediocrity.”

“For a man to be great, he must be able to hide his acts of greatness.”

“A name is a man's most intimate possession. It is the first word he learns, the sound he answers to all his life.”

“Love is a kind of illness, and when it is not in a fever stage it is not love at all.”

“Truth is a jewel which should not be seen in a dishevelled state.”

“The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors.”

“One can get used to anything, but it is a mark of degradation to do so.”

“To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that bear it.”

“No one can be a painter unless he cares for painting more than for anything else.”

“It is more woundrous to be a man than to be a king.”

“A boy's love comes from a full heart; a man's is more often the result of a full stomach.”

“When a king sets himself to be a demagogue, he becomes a monster.”

“He has the common failing of handsome men, that of liking to be liked.”

“Sooner or later, a man who is any good at all should have his own signature; it is a part of his self-respect.”

“He was a man who had been to the underworld and returned, and those who have, know things others do not.”

“A man who has trained himself in goodness come to have certain direct intuitions.”

“It is one of the injustices of fate, that a man may be famous and yet not know it.”

“But the fall of a great man, however deserved, is always a sad thing.”