“You will go most safely by the middle way.”

“I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow the wrong.”

“All right, boy, skewer me. I've dropped my defenses, I'm an easy victim. Why, by nowYour arrows practically know their own way to the target And feel less at home in their quiver than in me.”

“Venus of Eryx, from her mountain throne,Saw Hades and clasped her swift-winged son, and said:'Cupid, my child, my warrior, my power,Take those sure shafts with which you conquer all,And shoot your speedy arrows to the heartOf the great god to whom the last lot fellWhen the three realms were drawn. Your masterySubdues the gods of heaven and even Jove,Subdues the ocean's deities and him,Even him, who rules the ocean's deities.Why should Hell lag behind? Why not there tooExtend your mother's empire and your own....?Then Cupid, guided by his mother, openedHis quiver of all his thousand arrowsSelected one, the sharpest and the surest,The arrow most obedient to the bow,And bent the pliant horn against his kneeAnd shot the barbed shaft deep in Pluto's heart.”

“Thus I am not able to exist either with you or without you; and I seem not to know my own wishes.”

“If you would be loved, be lovable”

“By yielding you may obtain victory”