Top 500 Madeline Miller Quotes (2026 Update)
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451. “But I would have the memory be worthy of the man.”

— Madeline Miller

452. “I heard you were here.” A clear voice like ice-melted streams.”

— Madeline Miller

453. “What makes a witch, then? If it is not divinity?”

— Madeline Miller

454. “No one would remember his glory, or his honesty, or his beauty; all his gold would be turned to ashes and ruin.”

— Madeline Miller

455. “Achilles smiles as his face strikes the earth.”

— Madeline Miller

456. “Each man or woman who passed, she knew their history and would tell it to me, for she said that you must understand people if you would rule them.”

— Madeline Miller

457. “It was true. Odysseus’ favorite task was the sort that only had to be performed once: raiding a town, defeating a monster, finding a way inside an impenetrable city.”

— Madeline Miller

458. “In our stories these divinities had to work by wheedling and flattery, by favors won from stronger gods. They could not do much themselves. Except live, forever.”

— Madeline Miller

459. “His eyes opened. “Name one hero who was happy.” I considered. Heracles went mad and killed his family; Theseus lost his bride and father; Jason’s children and new wife were murdered by his old; Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled by the fall from Pegasus’ back.”

— Madeline Miller

460. “The thread will run smooth, whether you choose it or not. I tell you as a friend, it is better to seek it on your own terms, to make it go at your pace, than theirs.”

— Madeline Miller

461. “Witches are not so delicate.”

— Madeline Miller

462. “Water still streamed from his hair, and I watched it bead, tracing across his arms and the lines of his chest.”

— Madeline Miller

463. “War has always seemed to me a foolish choice for men. Whatever they win from it, they will have only a handful of years to enjoy before they die. More likely they will perish trying.”

— Madeline Miller

464. “I haunt their dreams. Do not leave, I beg them. Not until you have given me peace. But if anyone hears, they do not answer.”

— Madeline Miller

465. “Indeed, he seemed utterly unaware of his effect on the boys around him.”

— Madeline Miller

466. “I drew my divinity up, cold and bracing around me, and went to open the door.”

— Madeline Miller

467. “I have heard that men who live by a waterfall cease to hear it –.”

— Madeline Miller

468. “So the people went to Meleager, to beg him for his help. And – Achilles, are you listening?” “Yes, Father.” “You are not. You are tormenting our poor Skops.” I tried to look tormented.”

— Madeline Miller

469. “I cannot account for the fact that she married me, but since it is to my benefit, I try not to bring it to her attention.”

— Madeline Miller

470. “He ran from me whenever I wanted him, but the moment I took up my work, he would drum at the floor with his heels, crying for my attention.”

— Madeline Miller

471. “No hay honor en traicionar a los amigos.”

— Madeline Miller

472. “Tell me,” he said, “who gives better offerings, a miserable man or a happy one?” “A happy one, of course.” “Wrong,” he said. “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 you a pure-white yearling calf. If he can afford it, he will buy you a hundred.”

— Madeline Miller

473. “I always seemed to be in a lull, a strange pocket of emptiness into which no men came, and I was never threatened.”

— Madeline Miller

474. “Into such miseries, your son came. Bright as a sunrise, sweet as ripe fruit.”

— Madeline Miller

475. “Minos, king of Crete, son of Zeus and a mortal woman.”

— Madeline Miller

476. “I was giddy feeling his first kicks and I spoke to him every moment, as I crushed my herbs, as I cut clothes for his body, wove his cradle out of rushes. I imagined him walking beside me, the child and boy and man that he would be.”

— Madeline Miller

477. “Her calmness enraged me.”

— Madeline Miller

478. “I knew how pleasure looked on him.”

— Madeline Miller

479. “Witchcraft transforms the world. He wanted only to join it.”

— Madeline Miller

480. “Some walked hand in hand with those they had loved in life; some waited, secure that one day their beloved would come. And for those who had not loved, whose lives had been filled with pain and horror, there was the black river Lethe, where one might drink and forget. Some consolation.”

— Madeline Miller

481. “I felt myself tremble, but I would not let him see it. Great gods smell fear like sharks smell blood, and they will devour you for it jus the same.”

— Madeline Miller

482. “After that, I was craftier with my observation, kept my head down and my eyes ready to leap away. But he was craftier still. At least once a dinner he would turn and catch me before I could feign indifference. Those seconds, half seconds, that the line of our gaze connected, were the only moments in my day that I felt anything at all. The sudden swoop of my stomach, the coursing anger. I was like a fish eyeing the hook.”

— Madeline Miller

483. “Daedalus had said to me once: Even the best iron grows brittle with too much beating.”

— Madeline Miller

484. “She was a poisoner at heart; she wanted to be sure I came as villain, not savior.”

— Madeline Miller

485. “That’s the strangest of all. I look down at his blood and know my death is coming. But in the dream I do not mind. What I feel, most of all, is relief.”

— Madeline Miller

486. “It was as if we found the still heart of the universe. Nothing moved except for us.”

— Madeline Miller

487. “She brought the whole urgent universe wherever she went, portents and angry deities and a thousand looming perils.”

— Madeline Miller

488. “Every day makes me old,” she said. “I do not have your years to waste. As for that safety, I do not want it. It is only more chains. Let them come at me if they dare.”

— Madeline Miller

489. “Name one hero who was happy – You can’t.” “I can’t.” “I know. They never let you become famous and happy – I’ll tell you a secret.” “Tell me.” “I’m going to be the first.”

— Madeline Miller

490. “His presence was like a stone in my shoe, impossible to ignore. His skin was the color of just-pressed olive oil, and smooth as polished wood, without scabs and blemishes that covered the rest of us.”

— Madeline Miller

491. “You are braver than most gods then. I once saw Aphrodite leave her son to die on the field over a scratch.”

— Madeline Miller

492. “The bull has been killed, sweating the last of its blood into dust and dark bronze bowls. It went quietly to its death, a good omen for the games to come.”

— Madeline Miller

493. “He landed, and the weapons were already lifted, held with a deadly poise that was like no girl, nor no man either. The greatest warrior of his generation.”

— Madeline Miller

494. “The door closed, and the room swelled around me like a bruise. When she was here, I could pretend it felt small because of her, but when she left the four wood walls seemed to press towards me, like lungs that had breathed in.”

— Madeline Miller

495. “Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”

— Madeline Miller

496. “Her resistance mattered no longer: a deflowering was as binding as marriage vows.”

— Madeline Miller

497. “He would patch their ships and I would cast charms against biting flies and fevers and we would take pleasure in the simple mending of the world.”

— Madeline Miller

498. “I did not hear them. His presence was like a stone in my shoe, impossible to ignore.”

— Madeline Miller

499. “Will you tell me who hurt you?’ I imagine saying, ‘You.’ But that is nothing more than childishness.”

— Madeline Miller

500. “It was our weakness that drew the war out, not her strength.”

— Madeline Miller