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“Chiron had said once that nations were the most foolish of mortal inventions. “No man is worth more than another, wherever he is from.”

“But what if he is your friend?” Achilles had asked him, feet kicked up on the wall of the rose-quartz cave. “Or your brother? Should you treat him the same as a stranger?”

“You ask a question that philosophers argue over,” Chiron had said. “He is worth more to you, perhaps. But the stranger is someone else’s friend and brother. So which life is more important?”

We had been silent. We were fourteen, and these things were too hard for us. Now that we are twenty-seven, they still feel too hard.

He is half of my soul, as the poets say. He will be dead soon, and his honor is all that will remain. It is his child, his dearest self. Should I reproach him for it? I have saved Briseis. I cannot save them all.

I know, now, how I would answer Chiron. I would say: there is no answer. Whichever you choose, you are wrong.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“ذهب سعد وراح نعيم يتأمل ذلك الأمر العجيب بإغلاق الحمامات. أن يقاتلك عدوك مفهوم، ولكن ما الحكمة في إغلاق حمام أو إجبار الأهالي على التنصر؟ القشتاليون قوم غريبون مختالو العقول على ما يبدو، ولكن ما السبب في اختلال عقولهم؟ ألم تلدهم امهاتهم أطفال أصحاء عاديين مثل باقي الخلق؟ كيف تفسد عقولهم فيأتون بهذه الأفعال الغريبة؟ فكر نعيم في ذلك ولم يجد إجابة إجابة شافية. لعله البرد القارس في الشمال يجمد جزءا من رؤوسهم فلا يسري الدم فيه فيموت أو يفسد، أو ربما هو لحم الخنزير الذي يصرفون في أكله فيصيبهم بالخبل؟”
― رضوى عاشور, ثلاثية غرناطة

“Odysseus inclines his head. "True. But fame is a strange thing. Some men gain glory after they die, while others fade. What is admired in one generation is abhorred in another." He spread his broad hands. "We cannot say who will survive the holocaust of memory. Who knows?" He smiles. "Perhaps one day even I will be famous. Perhaps more famous than you.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“You know, it’s really very peculiar. To be mortal is the most basic human experience, and yet man has never been able to accept it, grasp it, and behave accordingly. Man doesn’t know how to be mortal. And when he dies, he doesn’t even know how to be dead.”
― Milan Kundera, Immortality