Curate, connect, and discover
by madeline miller. i altered some quotes so they fit better ♡
❝ i saw then how i had changed. ❞ ❝ name one hero who was happy — you can’t. ❞ ❝ i feel like i could eat the world raw. ❞ ❝ you are half my soul, as the poets say. ❞ ❝ i have no need to forgive you. you cannot offend me. ❞ ❝ i do not fear ridicule. i never have. ❞ ❝ you have always trusted so easily; you have had so little in your life to fear or suspect. ❞ ❝ do you hear me? please, say something. ❞ ❝ your face is like quicksilver, always racing to something new. you unsettle me. ❞ ❝ you do not give things up so easily now as you once did. ❞ ❝ now i know how to make you follow me everywhere. ❞ ❝ i would know your face in dark or disguise. i would know it even in madness. ❞ ❝ there is no law that gods must be fair. ❞ ❝ i have never seen anyone fight the way you do. ❞ ❝ our dead come for their vengeance regardless of witnesses. ❞ ❝ the sorrow was so large it threatened to tear through my skin. ❞ ❝ when you die, all things soft and beautiful and bright would be buried with you. ❞ ❝ you were always better with words than i. ❞ ❝ i will never leave you. it will be this, always, for as long as you will let me. ❞ ❝ you smile, and your face is like the sun. ❞ ❝ i thought you were — something. you do not — you do not move like a human. ❞ ❝ do you want to walk up to the woods? ❞ ❝ you can’t be very wounded if you can stand for so long. ❞ ❝ there are no bargains between lion and men. i will kill you and eat you raw. ❞ ❝ we are like gods at the dawning of the world. ❞ ❝ nothing could eclipse the stain of this dirty, mortal mediocrity. ❞ ❝ i yearn for the darkness and silence of the underworld, where i can rest. ❞ ❝ those seconds, half seconds, that the line of our gaze connected, were the only moment in my day that i felt anything at all. ❞ ❝ you seem utterly unaware of your effect on the people around you. ❞ ❝ 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. ❞ ❝ you are a weapon, a killer. do not forget it. ❞ ❝ i have heard that men who live by a waterfall cease to hear it — in such a way did i learn to live beside the rushing torrent of my doom. ❞ ❝ if you have to go, you know i will go with you. ❞ ❝ there is no one like you. ❞ ❝ we have given each other wounds, but they are not mortal. ❞ ❝ and perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone. ❞ ❝ who can be ashamed to lose to such beauty? it is enough to watch you win. ❞ ❝ do not let what you have gained this day be so easily lost. ❞ ❝ you have killed them and taken your vengeance. it is enough. ❞ ❝ no man is worth more than another, wherever he is from. ❞ ❝ strange that such a small kindness feels like grace. ❞ ❝ you can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature. ❞ ❝ i cannot bear to see you grieving. ❞ ❝ i remember little more than scattered images from my life then. ❞ ❝ i would recognize you by touch alone, by smell; i would know you blind, by the way your breaths came and your feet struck the earth. i would know you in death, at the end of the world. ❞ ❝ i see a dozen men here ready to leap on each other’s throats. ❞ ❝ in my land a bow is marked as the weapon of cowards. ❞ ❝ you may still make a good person. ❞ ❝ you don’t bother to threaten me, yet. i should be worth threatening. ❞ ❝ the memories well up like springwater, faster than i can hold them back. ❞ ❝ i hoped that you would come. ❞ ❝ the voices of the dead were said to have the power to make the living mad. ❞ ❝ i have weathered the anger of gods before. ❞ ❝ i thought of how many nights i had lain awake in this room, loving you in silence. ❞ ❝ there is nothing in the world i want more than to know what you had not said. ❞ ❝ you will never gain fame from your fighting. does this surprise you? ❞ ❝ my mind is filled with cataclysm and apocalypse: i wish for earthquakes, eruptions, flood. only that seems large enough to hold all of my rage and grief. ❞ ❝ i will not cry in front of you. ❞ ❝ listen to me. you go too far in this. i will not be able to protect you. ❞ ❝ there is no honor in betraying your friends. ❞ ❝ i’m afraid I have been prompted by a rare stirring of guilt. ❞ ❝ i promised myself that if i ever saw you again, i would keep my thoughts behind my eyes. ❞ ❝ i did not want you to see my fear, though normally we kept nothing from each other. ❞ ❝ gods and mortals never mix happily in our stories. ❞ ❝ you will be dead soon enough. ❞ ❝ you are destroying yourself. you will not be loved for this, you will be hated, and cursed. ❞ ❝ you left yourself today. and now you are returned. ❞ ❝ you are a better person than i. ❞ ❝ whatever you do, i shall stand with you, as i always have. ❞ ❝ you have looked at me a thousand thousand times, but there is something different in this gaze, an intensity i do not know. ❞ ❝ my life is my reputation. it is all i have. ❞ ❝ may i give you some advice? if you are truly his friend, you will help him leave this soft heart behind. ❞ ❝ what are you thinking about? ❞ ❝ even the boldest of people would whisper a prayer if they brushed against me. ❞ ❝ the keen edge of my envy was like flint, a spark away from fire. ❞ ❝ do you think we fight hopeless wars? ❞ ❝ it is strange, that you would speak against betrayal. ❞ ❝ if every soldier killed only those who’d personally offended him, we’d have no wars at all. ❞ ❝ no one has ever tried to take something from me. ❞ ❝ stay behind me. ❞ ❝ will you help me put the rest of my armor on? ❞ ❝ your face is blank and barren, like another language, impenetrable. ❞ ❝ i am here because i believe that we will win. i am staying until the end. ❞ ❝ your presence is like a stone in my shoe, impossible to ignore. ❞ ❝ he is not worthy of you. he never has been. ❞ ❝ will you tell me who hurt you? ❞ ❝ it is like a nightmare; i expect, each moment, to wake to relief. but there is no waking. ❞ ❝ i do not need to prove myself to you. to any of you. ❞ ❝ you have always thought too much of yourself. ❞ ❝ some men gain glory after they die, while others fade. ❞ ❝ even here, behind the darkness of my eyelids, i cannot name the thing i hope for. ❞ ❝ our joy is so bright we can see nothing else but the other. ❞ ❝ you have a tender heart. an admirable quality, surely. ❞ ❝ you are spring, golden and bright. envious death would drink your blood, and grow young again. ❞ ❝ i will not be the raven on your shoulder all the time, predicting gloom. ❞ ❝ you look different in sleep, beautiful but cold as moonlight. ❞ ❝ when there is greed, there is hope. ❞ ❝ i could have told you more, of the dreams that leave me bleary and bloodshot, the almost-screams that scrape my throat as i swallow them down. ❞ ❝ you are angry, and not without reason. ❞ ❝ you feel mislead; you were promised victory. ❞ ❝ you know, it’s funny; i keep thinking i’ve seen you before. ❞