“Love is blind but not deaf.”

“There is fire and fire: The fire that burns and the fire that gives warmth, a fire that sets a forest ablaze and the fire that puts a cat to sleep. So is it with self-love. The member that once seemed one of the wonders of the world soon becomes as homely as an old slipper. Mathew and himself gradually ceased to excite each other.”

“My little Matthew, Isabelle at once snapped back at him, when two people agree, it means one of them is redundant”

“And my Black bird, still not quitting, still is sitting, still is sittingOn that pallid bust -- still flitting through my dolorous domain;But it cannot stop from gazing for it truly finds amazingThat, by artful paraphrasing, I such rhyming can sustain--Notwithstanding my lost symbol I such rhyming still sustain--Though I shan't try it again!”

“You read Salinger in Italian? Molto chic’‘I was told a good way to learn a language was to read translations of books you know by heart’‘That’s interesting.’But Isabelle wasn’t at all interested. She had just discovered a new expression. She savoured it amorously. From now on everything that once has been "sublime" – a film, a Worth gown, a Coromandel screen – would be "molto chic". Like those devotees of the increase-your-word-power column in the Reader’s Digest who stake their conversational reputation on the number of times in a single day they find room for "plethora" and "infelicity" and "quintessential", dropping these words the way other people drop names, she hated to let any amusing phrase go once it had caught her fancy.”

“Those occupying leadership roles who completely lack integrity are what we call 'Blind shepherds'. They are not really 'bad' leaders, because they are not leaders at all: they are misleaders.”

“ Duty o'er love was the choice you did make My love you did spurn, my heart you did break Your penance to pay, no pride you shall gain Three sons on three sons find nothing but pain I gift you my powers in memory of me The joy of love no son shall ever seeWhen a Lifemate is chosen by the heart of a son No protection can be given, again I have won His pain will be deep, her death will be swift Inside his heart a terrible riftOnly freely given will this curse be done To break the spell, three must work as one.”