“Life itself, she thought, as she went upstairs to dress for dinner, was stranger than dreams and far, far more disordered.”

“The enmity of one's kindred is far more bitter than the enmity of strangers.”

“Living, being in the world, was a much greater and stranger thing than she had ever dreamed.”

“She knew that life was but a long struggle against disorder, and that disorder was the inevitable winner.”

“There is no spectacle on earth more appealing than that of a beautiful woman in the act of cooking dinner for someone she loves.”

“It is far easier for a woman to lead
a blameless life than it is for a man;
all she has to do is to avoid
sexual intercourse like the plague.”

“Sometimes, she reflected, she dressed for courage, sometimes for success, and sometimes for the consolation of knowing that whatever else went wrong, at least she liked her clothes.”

“I turned. She was in a light, saffron-yellow dress of the ancient model. This was a thousand times more cruel than if she had worn nothing.”

“His last thought, as sleep overtook him, was that it was true what Cosimo had said: the universe was far stranger than anyone imagined, or could imagine.”

“She went around with a broken heart, and she wasn't sure who'd broken it. She thought it was herself, mostly.”