“Assassination is an art, milord. And I am the city's most accomplished artist.”

“If an artist only as good as there art and a poet only as good as there poetry if I am neither of these things what am I as good as?”

“The surpluses will have to be expended somehow, and trust the oligarchs to find a way. Magnificent roads will be built. There will be great achievements in science, and especially in art. When the oligarchs have completely mastered the people, they will have time to spare for other things. They will become worshippers of beauty. They will become art-lovers. And under their direction and generously rewarded, will toil the artists. The result will be great art; for no longer, as up to yesterday, will the artists pander to the bourgeois taste of the middle class. It will be great art, I tell you, and wonder cities will arise that will make tawdry and cheap the cities of old time. And in these cities will the oligarchs dwell and worship beauty”

“Of an artistic temperament, I deny that I am; yet I must possess something of the artist's faculty of making the most of present pleasure.”

“No. Not yet. A craftsman only. But I dream to be an artist. I pray that someday, if I work with enough care, if I am very very lucky, I will make a weapon that is a work of art. Call me an artist then, and I will answer.”

“this has been a birthday best forgotten.”“Most birthdays are, milord,” his man said agreeably”