“She respected her husband in the same way as she respected the General Post Office, as something large, secure and fixed: and though she knew the small number of his talents she appreciated his abstract value as a male.”

“She did not want to be greater than her husband: what she did want was that he should acknowledge her as his equal, with love and with respect.”

“She was a good Christian woman with a large respect for religion, though she did not, of course, believe any of it was true.”

“Had she any respect for him at all, his words would've affected her. But no value accompanies comments spewed from the mouth of a brute.”

“You're a respectable woman, dearie, and her reputation is a woman's wealth.""Her wealth," Tenar repeated in the same blank way; then she said it again: "Her wealth. Her treasure. Her hoard. Her value...”

“She wasn't totally unaware of herself, though. She knew there was pain, but in the same way she knew the sun was hot. It was far away and only tendrils of it reached her.”