“Then the syncretist Ficino, sitting hunched with Lorenzo standing at his side, put all the ideas together, along with Lorenzo's new song: chariots blazing between the worlds as gods fought rebel gods, the destruction of a city -- a planet? -- by fire, beasts beyond imagining both to terrify and befriend the heroes."It needs a title," Signorina Scala said.Pulci had his mouth open, but Ficino beat him to the pun."It shall be dedicated to Isis and Mars," he said, "and we will call it Stella Martis.”

“Maybe that was why another part of me--a very small part--had wanted to kiss Wallace then. Both sides of his mouth, between his brows, and every other place those stupid worry lines marred his expression. That part of me had wanted to hold him tight and give him the comfort I knew he couldn’t ask for.But that part terrified me the most.”

“We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.”

“Lorenzo gently places his hands on either side of my face, lowering his head to stare directly into my eyes. His voice is barely above a whisper as he says, "Patience D'Angeli-Cat-you are my dream now.”

“We have come here for revenge,” Giulietta corrected him “and to gut that monster, Salimbeni, and string him up by his own entrails …” “Ahem,” said Friar Lorenzo, “we will, of course, exercise Christian forgiveness—” Giulietta nodded eagerly, hearing nothing. “… While we feed him to his dogs, piece by piece!”

“Tess had said that the river was liable to wash the palace and the city and the whole kingdom off the rocks, and then there would finally be peace in the world."Peace in the world," Brigan repeated musingly when Fire told him. "I suppose she's right. That would bring peace to the world. But it's not likely to happen, so I suppose we'll have to keep blundering on and making a mess of it.""Oh," Fire said, "well put. We'll have to pass that on to the governor so he can use it in his speech when they dedicate the new bridge.”