“Love is a gift. Not a bribe.”

“When you give for a recompense,your gift becomes a bribe.”

“By reason of gifts and bribes the offices be given to rich men, which should rather have been executed by wise men.”

“When I go to hell, I mean to carry a bribe: for look you, good gifts evermore make way for the worst persons.”

“The gold was a gift; you said so yourself.""You are a woman," Nahuseresh said very gently. "You do not understand the world of kings and emperors, you do not understand the nature of their gifts.""Nahuseresh, if there is one thing a woman understands, it is the nature of gifts. They are bribes when threats will not avail. Your emperor cannot attack this coast unprovoked; the treaties with the greater nations of this Continent prevent him. All he can do is stir up an ugly three-way war and hope to be invited in as an ally, and I did not invite him." The queen shook her head. "The problem with bribes, Nahuseresh, is that after your money is gone, threats still do not avail."Nahuseresh stared, seeing a queen he hadn't guessed existed.”

“There's probably no one so easily bribed, but he lacks even the fundamental honesty of honorable corruption. He doesn't stay bribed; not for any sum.”