“Narrow minds can develop as well through persecution as through benevolence; they can assure themselves of their power by tyrannizing cruelly or beneficially over others.”

“Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.”

“Women themselves are so happy, and so beautiful, when they're strong, that they naturally choose powerful men, even if that power's so enermous there's a real risk it could shatter them.”

“True love rules especially through memory.”

“Wisdom is that apprehension of heavenly things to which the spirit rises through love.”

“The viscountess had raised the forefinger of her right hand and made a pretty gesture toward a stool at her feet. There was such intense tyrannical passion in the gesture that the marquis relinquished the doorknob and came back.”

“Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”