Medea Quotes

When arrogant hands once seize power, the ruler thinks authority resides in stubbornness. ~ Seneca.

Medea kills her brother. In the beginning, she is known by her nephew, who tells the Argonauts about her, for having power, for helping her family, just like I tried to help Skeet on the day China first got sick from the Ivomec. But for Medea, love makes help turn wrong. ~ Jesmyn Ward

When I consider all the circumstances detailed above respecting the Pans, I cannot help believing that, under the mythos, a doctrine or history of a sect is concealed. Cunti, the wife of Pandu (du or God, Pan), wife of the generative power, mother of the Pandavas or devas, daughter of Sura or Syra the Sun Pandaea only daughter of Cristna or the Sun Pandion, who had by Medea a son called Medus, the king of the Medes, who had a cousin, the famous Perseus surely all this is very mythological an historical parable! ~ Godfrey Higgins

What does cookery mean? It means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe,
and of Calypso, and Sheba. It means knowledge of all herbs, and fruits, and
balms and spices ... It means the economy of your great-grandmother and the
science of modern chemistry, and French art, and Arabian hospitality. It
means, in fine, that you are to see imperatively that everyone has something
nice to eat. ~ John Ruskin

Medea and the sacred wolf, J. Malachi thought. Somebody help me, I'm going to rehab in a Greek myth. ~ Eve Tushnet

You really don't care for torture, do you? (Medea)
No, I don't. It's one thing to strike out in anger, another to cause agony for the hell of it. I'm a soldier, not a coward. (Stryker) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

My love for you
was greater than my wisdom. ~ Euripides

Changing the structure and rules of the global economy will require a mass movement based on messages of compassion, justice, and equality, as well as collaborative and democratic processes ... If we stay positive, inclusive, and democratic, we have a truly historic opportunity to build a global movement for social justice. ~ Medea Benjamin

The stories abounded, both recounting these cross-continental journeys and perhaps inspiring them – how Hellenic Jason gathered his Argonauts together (including Augeas, whose vast stables Herakles would be forced to clean) for adventure and profit, how he stopped off along the Bosphorus and discovered the land of the rising sun before other Greek heroes headed to Asia in search of Helen, Troy and glory. In the Homeric epics we hear of Jason travelling east where he tangles with Medea of Colchis, her aunt Circe and the feisty Amazon tribe. Lured by the promise of gold (early and prodigious metalworking did indeed take place in the region – perhaps sparking the Greek idea that the East was 'rich in gold') and then detained by the potions and poisons of Princess Medea, Jason succeeded in penetrating the Caucasus – a land which, in the Greek mind, wept with both peril and promise. It was here that Prometheus was chained to a rock with iron rivets for daring to steal fire from the gods. Archaeology east of Istanbul demonstrates how myth grazes history. ~ Bettany Hughes

If it weren't for people like the people in Berkeley, standing up for what they believe, we'd be living under Hitler. ~ Medea Benjamin

I'd three times sooner go to war than suffer childbirth once. ~ Euripides

I hear all the time that peace activists are naive, that it is impossible to talk to extremists--people who have no regard for the lives of innocents... But in my experience in conflict zones the world over, there are always people to talk to. From members of Hamas in Gaza to Baathists under Saddam's Iraq to the Taliban in Afganistan to government officials in Iran, it is a major blunder to label all our perceived enemies as extremists incapable of rational conversation. People join militant groups for many reasons--religious, family, social pressure, revenge for some wrong they experienced, political ideology, poverty. With such diversity of motives, the are always some people who can be enticed to talk about peace. Our goal should be to seek them out, to strengthen the moderates. Unfortunately, our actions have only served to embolden the extremists. ~ Medea Benjamin

Your father abandoned us. (Zephyra)
I know. You've told me that enough that it's permanently seared into my brain. Still, he's a part of me and I'd like to have closure. (Medea)
You really need to stop watching Oprah. (Zephyra) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

To me, a wicked man who is also eloquent seems the most guilty of them all. He'll cut your throat as bold as brass, because he can dress up murder in handsome words. ~ Euripides

Kingdoms which act unjustly never last. ~ Seneca.

I studied classics, and I find it mystifying that we had Medea and Electra and Antigone and all these amazing characters, and they don't really exist in cinema now. The only person who's really doing it, and he gets loads of criticism for it, is Lars Von Trier. ~ Alice Lowe

Israel is run by war criminals. ~ Medea Benjamin

Relax, Medea. We've come to see your mother. (Tory)
Your funeral. (Medea)
It's always so good to see you, too. You're just such a ray of happy sunshine. I so look forward to all our interactions. (Tory) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

Workplace dynamics are no less complicated or unexpectedly intense than family relations, with only the added difficulty that whereas families are at least well-recognised and sanctioned loci for hysteria reminiscent of scenes from Medea, office life typically proceeds behind a mask of shallow cheerfulness, leaving workers grievously unprepared to handle the fury and sadness continually aroused by their colleagues. ~ Alain De Botton

Um ... Falcyn?"Medea
"What's my brother doing?" Blaise
"Holding me in an awkwardly tight manner. It's very strange" Medea
"But is he sitting on you?" Blaise
" ... Why? should I be worried?" Medea
"Well, it means he's not trying to hatch you. Yet. That's always a bonus." Blaise ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

Anger,
The spring of all life's horror.

- Medea ~ Euripides

A pain was gnawing in my chest. I pressed my hands to it, the hollows and hard bones. I sat before my loom and felt at last like the creature Medea had named me: old and abandoned and alone, spiritless and gray as the rocks themselves. ~ Madeline Miller

you will rise.
and are you less of a woman for this? no
what is woman?
woman is this - enduring.
listen girl, you will survive this–you will.
but what fool said you had to do it silently?
here is a tip - scream ~ Salma Deera

Throughout history, human nature remains unchanged. The world's oldest questions are still being asked. Medea, Oedipus, we're not adding anything that the Greeks didn't already know. ~ Christopher Fowler

What heavenly power lends an ear
To a breaker of oaths, a deceiver? ~ Euripides

Like a night when the energy is bloody unsalvageable but the show must et cetera. Domesticity. Times when one wonders if Medea is a tragedy or goddamn wish fulfillment. ~ Brian McGreevy

Cookery means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe and of Helen and of the Queen of Sheba. It means the knowledge of all herbs and fruits and balms and spices, and all that is healing and sweet in the fields and groves and savory in meats. It means carefulness and inventiveness and willingness and readiness of appliances. It means the economy of your grandmothers and the science of the modern chemist; it means much testing and no wasting; it means English thoroughness and French art and Arabian hospitality; and, in fine, it means that you are to be perfectly and always ladies - loaf givers. ~ John Ruskin

A family formed by crime must be broken by more crime. ~ Seneca.

I'd started going to acting classes at 14, played 'Medea' at 15 and really wanted to be a classical actress. ~ Barbra Streisand

Poor woman, do you want to know where hatred ends? Look to love. ~ Seneca.

Medea is without words, without thought. She has unstrung the world, pulled some vital thread and unraveled all. Nothing to do now but hold her breath and find out whether a new world re-forms. ~ David Vann

There is no justice in the world's censorious eyes. They will not wait to learn a man's true character;
Though no wrong has been done them, one look - and they hate.

- Medea ~ Euripides

Why long for death's marriage bed
which human beings all shun?
Death comes soon enough
and brings and end to everything. ~ Euripides

Voice-cry. Agony
the spoken "word" exploded, blown to bits by suffering and anger, demolishing discourse: this is how she has always been heard before, ever since the time when masculine society began to push her offstage, expulsing her, plundering her. Ever since Medea, ever since Electra. ~ Helene Cixous

Portia we can admire because, having seen her leave her Earthly Paradise to do a good deed in this world (one notices, incidentally, that in this world she appears in disguise), we know that she is aware of her wealth as a moral responsibility, but the other inhabitants of Belmont, Bassanio, Gratiano, Lorenzo and Jessica, for all their beauty and charm, appear as frivolous members of a leisure class, whose carefree life is parasitic upon the labors of others, including usurers. When we learn that Jessica has spent fourscore ducats of her father's money in an evening and bought a monkey with her mother's ring, we cannot take this as a comic punishment for Shylock's sin of avarice; her behavior seems rather an example of the opposite sin of conspicuous waste. Then, with the example in our minds of self-sacrificing love as displayed by Antonio, while we can enjoy the verbal felicity of the love duet between Lorenzo and Jessica, we cannot help noticing that the pairs of lovers they recall, Troilus and Cressida, Aeneas and Dido, Jason and Medea, are none of them examples of self-sacrifice or fidelity. […] Belmont would like to believe that men and women are either good or bad by nature, but Antonio and Shylock remind us that this is an illusion; in the real world, no hatred is totally without justification, no love totally innocent. ~ W.H. Auden

People talk about nature as a mother, but to me she's always been Medea, ready and willing to slaughter her children. ~ Rachel Caine

The one who knows no hope knows no despair. ~ Seneca.

So, on top of the betrayal, I got to feel ashamed. I got to hate myself, when the rage of Medea would have served me better; but I was ever a stranger to rage. ~ Susan Spano

Medea? Don't worry. Satara's rooms are far enough away that you won't be subjected to the sounds of wild monkey sex. (Stryker)
Ew! You were right, Mum. I should have allowed you to cut his throat. Get me out of here as quickly as possible. (Stryker) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

You would destroy your own grandfather?" I asked.
Medea shrugged. "Why not? You gods are all family, but you're constantly trying to kill each other."
I hate it when evil sorceresses have a point. ~ Rick Riordan

Lorenzo: In such a night stood Dido with a willow in her hand upon the wild sea-banks, and waft her love to come again to Carthage
Jessica: In such a night Medea gathered the enchanted herbs that did renew old Aeson.
Lorenzo: In such a night did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew, and with an unthrift love did run from Venice, as far as Belmont.
Jessica: In such a night did young Lorenzo swear he lov'd her well, stealing her soul with many vows of faith, and ne'er a true one.
Lorenzo: In such a night did pretty Jessica (like a little shrow) slander her love, and he forgave it her.
Jessica: I would out-night you, did nobody come; but hark, I hear the footing of a man. ~ William Shakespeare

no man,
is ever happy, no one. ~ Euripides

Once upon a time there was a wicked witch and her name was
Lilith
Eve
Hagar
Jezebel
Delilah
Pandora
Jahi
Tamar
and there was a wicked witch and she was also called goddess and her name was
Kali
Fatima
Artemis
Hera
Isis
Mary
Ishtar
and there was a wicked witch and she was also called queen and her name was
Bathsheba
Vashti
Cleopatra
Helen
Salome
Elizabeth
Clytemnestra
Medea
and there was a wicked witch and she was also called witch and her name was
Joan
Circe
Morgan le Fay
Tiamat
Maria Leonza
Medusa
and they had this in common: that they were feared, hated, desired, and worshiped. ~ Andrea Dworkin

No one who goes against her can win. ~ Euripides

No time is too short for criminals to do wrong. ~ Seneca.

death is the only water to wash away this dirt ~ Euripides

My most humiliating thought:Medea would capture me,try to strip away my divine power and find I didn't have any left.
What is this? she would scream. There's nothing here but Lester!
Then she would kill me anyway. ~ Rick Riordan

I know indeed what evil I intend to do, but stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury, fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils. ~ Euripides

Let's get a drink," Circe suggested, pointing to the Starbucks. "Look, there's a picture of a goddess on all their stuff. Maybe they're pro-goddess." "They're probably just using us to sell their overpriced products," Medea said. But since there was little else, they both bought coffees. ~ Carey RavenStar Robin

Blaise! Set her down! Now!" Falcyn
"What is your problem?" Medea
"He doesn't know where she's been." Falcyn
"Oh my God, Falcyn! He's not some two-year-old child and she's not a piece of candy he found on the floor that he stuck in his mouth!" Medea
"Well, that's how he's acting. He looks at her like he could eat her up." Falcyn
"And you're acting like a baby." Medea ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

It hit me very early on that something was terribly wrong, that I would see silos full of food and supermarkets full of food, and kids starving ... In Fair Trade, we see ourselves as this infinitesimal part of the world economy. But somebody's got to come up with an alternative model that says children eating is No. 1. ~ Medea Benjamin

Trust me, baby, you weren't that good. I was just a better actress than you were actor. (Zephyra to Stryker)
Ew! No offense, Mum, I don't want to know who you've slept with. Kill the sexual bantering and him before I go deaf from it. (Medea) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

I think that you hear more opposition to the government in Venezuela than you would here in the United States. That's in the TV, in the radio and in the print media. ~ Medea Benjamin

All things I do are in every woman. Every woman is Medea. Every woman is Jocasta. There comes a time when a woman is a mother to her husband. Clytemnestra is every woman when she kills. ~ Martha Graham

I actually think it is people like myself who have been fighting for our rights to free speech and I would like the right to defend my own right to free speech, not have soldiers doing it for me. I don't think I need soldiers. ~ Medea Benjamin

Hip to the fact that well-behaved women rarely make history, Diane [Wilson] has already inspired a new movement of totally uncontrollable, irresistible and unreasonable women! ~ Medea Benjamin