# Quote — Mary Renault, The Persian Boy

> 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. How many have tried, because of him? Not only those I have seen; there will be men to come. Those who look in mankind only for their own littleness, and make them believe in that, kill more than he ever will in all his wars.

- Author: [Mary Renault](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault.md)
- Book: [The Persian Boy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault/the-persian-boy.md)
- Page: 312
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Renault#The_Persian_Boy_(1972)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault/the-persian-boy/it-is-better

## More from this book

> So now, for mercy and honor shown to my people, my lord is barbarous; a tyrant, because he punished his would-be murderers, the right of their meanest citizen; a mere vaunting soldier, though wherever he went he brought Greece with him, the Greece he honored, of which these liars are the unworthy heirs.

p. 269 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault/the-persian-boy/so-now-for.md)

> To hate excellence is to hate the gods.

p. 400 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault/the-persian-boy/to-hate-excellence.md)

> When we serve the great, they are our destiny.

p. 26 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-renault/the-persian-boy/when-we-serve.md)