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.

— Mary Renault

It is not the bloodletting that calls down power. It is the consenting.

— Mary Renault

It's only since it's been made impossible that it's been made so damn easy. It's got like prohibition, with bums and crooks making fortunes out of hooch, everyone who might have had a palate losing it, nobody caring how you hold your liquor, you've been smart enough if you get it at all. You can't make good wine in a bathtub in the cellar, you need sun and rain and fresh air, you need pride in a job you can tell the world about. Only you can live without drink if you have to, but you can't live without love.

— Mary Renault

Men are not born equal in themselves, so I think it beneath a man to postulate that they are. If I thought myself as good as Socrates I should be a fool; and if, not really believing it, I asked you to make me happy by assuring me of it, you would rightly despise me. So why should I insult my fellow-citizens by treating them as fools and cowards? A man who thinks himself as good as everyone else will be at no pains to grow better. On the other hand, I might think myself as good as Socrates, and even persuade other fools to agree with me; but under a democracy, Socrates is there in the Agora to prove me wrong. I want a city where I can find my equals and respect my betters, whoever they are; and where no one can tell me to swallow a lie because it is expedient, or some other man's will.

— Mary Renault

Men would be as gods, if they had foreknowledge.

— Mary Renault

Often I wished for someone to share my mind with; but their hearts were in little things, they would have thought me a dreamer, and I had to plan alone.

— Mary Renault

People like me are blamed for curiosity; having lost part of our lives, we are apt to fill the gap from the lives of others. In this I am like the rest, and make no pretences.

— Mary Renault

There is madness in youth, but sometimes a god inspires it.

— Mary Renault

There is only one kind of shock worse than the totally unexpected: the expected for which one has refused to prepare.

— Mary Renault

To hate excellence is to hate the gods.

— Mary Renault