“Was Briony the only person who could hear the venom dripping from the woman’s tongue? What good was beauty — a mature beauty, but beauty nonetheless — if it cloaked such a viperous soul?”

“What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful.”

“If the Beautiful One is not inside you, then what is that Light hidden under your cloak?”

“What are you thinking?” She asks.-That you are beautiful. That not everyone could see it. I almost became the kind of person who could not.”

“Our language needs endless synonyms for beautiful; the eyes could see what the tongue cannot possibly describe.”

“But there is a beauty every girl has—agift from God, as pure as the sunlight,and as sacred as life. It is a beauty that all men love, a virtue that wins all men's souls. That beauty is chastity. Chastity without skin beauty may enkindle the soul; skin beauty without chastity can kindle only the eye. Chastity enshrined in the mold of true womanhood will hold true loveeternally.”