“Its best to turn to no one, to seek to please no one, as if there were only oneself in the world. The pleasure of others is a by-product after all, and if ever the whispering voices are allowed to crowd out the one voice, the result is this...a sort of high-pitched silliness, a terrible silliness.”

“When people say: She's got everything. I've only one answer: I haven't had tomorrow.”

“I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it was not me.”

“I know, but it's just one night and I really think it's silly to spend thousands of dollars on a dress you only wear once.”

“I say, Gibson, we're old friends, and you're a fool if you take anything I say as an offence. Madam your wife and I did not hit it off the only time I ever saw her. I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it was not me.”

“A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life to be thankful for a good one.”

“No one could hear them over the carriage wheels, yet somehow it felt right to whisper. His eyes dropped to her gaping bodice. One nipple was reddened and still moist. He averted his eyes, swallowing. His erection, silly thing, didn’t know the show was over.”