“Not like a heart, which let people in without permission, held them in a special place she never had any say in and then yearned for them to remain there longer than they planned.”

“The plea is, in a great measure, false; they had no permission to catch and enslave people who never injured them.”

“If there was one truth Evie had learned in her short life, it was that forgiveness was easier to seek than permission. She didn’t plan to ask for either one.”

“All the things she planned to feel, the way she planned to look and seem, the appropriate things she planned to say. None of them came to pass.”

“What can only be taught by the rod and with blows will not lead to much good; they will not remain pious any longer than the rod is behind them.”

“She hasn't your strength. She's never had any strength. She's never had anything but heart.”

“That was the danger of being old and a politician. Habits outlived the situations that created them. Policies remained in place after the situations that inspired them had changed. The calculus of all human power was changing, and the models she used to make sense of it shifted with them, and she had to keep reminding herself that the past was a different place. She didn’t live there anymore.”

“…She had the rare ability to be exactly what people needed when she was with them and yet still remain true to herself.”

“There are times when the human face and body can express the yearning of the heart so accurately that you can, as they say, read them like a book. Do not abandon me.”

“Never take people or places for granted, you may never see them again. If you cherish someone, let them know right now.”