“The first day of spring, the vernal equinox—the season of renewal when the earth sheds its winter cloak, flowers bloom, and the heart feels as though everything is once again imaginable. The smell of fresh-cut grass, shagging fly balls, and scraping mud from baseball cleats. A brief contemplation and tear for those gone from the field, their easy laugh and nimble sprint no longer gracing the game.”

“Women have eyes in their hearts that see what men cannot.”

“Passion makes us stronger than we are. Love makes us better than we are. Be passionate about the things you love.”

“Ardent believers hide within the safety of their absolutes, for much more courage is needed to abandon their cozy security for the questioning of ones own beliefs.”

“Prince Ahmad crouched over the headless body, the scout at his side. "you say a mere priest bested you?" "He weilded his sword like a master. I never saw such a display." The prince mocked the soldier. "Then let us pray we don't meet the Pope.”

“I will not deny that my heart has long occupied itself with the most tender feelings for another. So strong were these impulses that I indulged myself by thinking that if I could not have him whom I admired whom I will admit it now when I would not before I loved then I would never want another. However those are sentiments best saved for one of Lily's romances. The heart is a far more practical thing and in its life is happily capable of more than a single attachment.”

“What idiocy, to racing into this story and its labyrinths, sprinting away from our happiness among the fresh spring grasses by the oak.”