“I was not so comfortable with my new authority that I could say 'We eat the chicken now!' but the magus had seen that I was considering it..."My purse is full enough," said the magus, "to keep you supplied with roast chickens.""So, so, so," I said. "We know who the power behind the throne is," and the magus laughed."You eat more than Gen did after prison," he said."I have more sympathy with him all the time. Are you going to finish that drumstick?" I asked."I am. Stop staring at it.”

“I think a good book is a good book forever.I don't think they get less good because times change.”

“I am a master of foolhardy plans.”

“Ambiades, I realized, was the kind of person who liked to put people in a hierarchy, and he wanted me to understand that I was at the bottom of his. He was supposed to treat me politely in spite of my subservient position, and I was supposed to be grateful.For my part, I wanted Ambiades to understand that I considered myself a hierarchy of one. I might bow to the superior force of the magus and Pol, but I wasn't going to bow to him. Neither of us moved.”

“Oh, Lady," said the woodcutter, "my hurt is overwhelming because it is someone else's pain that makes me cry.”

“That was the message. For me, alone among mortals, the gods send their messenger to tell me to stop whining. That’ll teach me to go hide in a temple.”

“No man can choose to serve only himself when he has something to offer his state. No one can put his own wishes above the needs of so many.”

“All my life they had made choices for me, and I had resented it. Now the choice was mine, and once it was made, I would have no right to blame anyone else for the consequences. Loss of that privilege, to blame others, unexpectedly stung.”

“He whines, he complains, he ducks out of the most obvious responsibility. He is vain, petty and maddening, but he doesn't ever quit.”

“He lies to himself. If Eugenides talked in his sleep, he'd lie then, too.”

“Are you telling me in your own gentle way to stop whining?""Yes.""I don't feel like a hero. I feel like an idiot.""I think heroes generally do, but those men believe in you.""I did wait until I was outside before I threw up.”