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Each man in his life honors, and imitates as well as he can, that god to whose choir he belonged, while he is uncorrupted in his first incarnation here; and in the fashion he has thus learned, he bears himself to his beloved as well as to the rest. So, then, each chooses from among the beautiful a love conforming to his kind, and then, as if his chosen were his god, he sets him up and robes him for worship.

— Mary Renault The Charioteer (1953)

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More quotes by Mary Renault

It is better to believe in men too rashly, and regret, than believe too meanly. Men could be more than they are, if they would try for it. He has shown them that.

The Persian Boy (1972)

Men who hover over their opponents have no cause to evolve a science of wrestling; and Theseus is conventionally shown in combat with hulking of monstrous enemies, living by his wits.

The King Must Die (1958)

They had identified themselves with their limitations; they were making a career of them. They had turned from all other reality, and curled up in them snugly, as in a womb.

The Charioteer (1953)

It is bitter to lose a friend to evil, before one loses him to death.

The Praise Singer (1978)

But it is not for the perfect vase or the polished gem to choose their owners.

The Persian Boy (1972)

All Mary Renault quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Mary Renault (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.