Quotessence
Home / Authors / Madeline Miller
Madeline Miller

Madeline Miller Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

Famous Madeline Miller Quotes

“-’Tell me’, he said, ‘who gives better offerings, a miserable man or a happy one’? -’A happy one, of course.’ -’Wrong. A happy man is too occupied with his life. He thinks he is beholden to no one. But make him shiver, kill his wife, cripple his child, then you will hear from him. He will starve his family for a month to buy yo a pure-white yearling calf. If he can afford it, he will buy you a hundred’. -’But surely, I said, you have to reward him eventually. Otherwise he will stop offering’. -’Oh, you would be surprised how long he will go on. But yes, in the end, it’s best to give him something. Then he will be happy again. And you can start over.”

“Dopo aver mutato gli uomini di un equipaggio, il guardavo raspare e gridare nel porcile, defecarsi addosso l'un l'altro, instupidirsi dall'orrore. Odiavano tutto, le loro carni adesso voluttuose, i loro piedi fessi, i loro ventri gonfi strascicanti nel fango. Era un'umiliazione, un'abiezione. Morivano dalla nostalgia delle loro mani, per quelle appendici che gli uomini usano per mitigare il mondo. Andiamo, dicevo io, non è poi così male. Dovreste apprezzare i vantaggi di essere dei maiali. [,,,] Non mi stavano mai a sentire. La verità è che gli uomini sono dei pessimi maiali.”

“»Wie lustig, « fuhr sie fort, »dass du selbst nach so langer Zeit immer noch erwartest, dass man dich belohnt, nur weil du gehorsam warst. Ich dachte, du hättest diese Lektion im Palast unseres Vaters gelernt. Niemand war so unterwürfig und ein-faltig wie du, und trotzdem trat der mächtige Helios dich umso rascher mit Füßen, denn du kauertest ja bereits da unten.«”

“Overhead the constellations dip and wheel. My divinity shines in me like the last rays of the sun before they drown in the sea. I thought once that gods are the opposite of death, but I see now they are more dead than anything, for they are unchanging, and can hold nothing in their hands. All my life, I have been moving forward, and now I am here. I have a mortal's voice, let me have the rest. I lift the brimming bowl to my lips and drink.”