Home > Author >
21 " Uncertainty is more contagious than the plague. Cesare, "
― , Blood & Beauty: The Borgias
22 " You would be surprised by the strength of a desperate man. "
23 " People do not smile when they are in hell, "
24 " When there is fear about the future, it is comforting to take it out on outsiders who can be blamed for the past. "
25 " Man is not born to be happy. "
26 " Cesare Borgia—oh, Cesare Borgia has proved himself a great warrior. "
27 " Borgia bastard could never be the social equal of a legitimate Medici. "
28 " He spends the night in prayer. God’s voice, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, tells him what the politician in him already knows: that whatever he might stand to gain from playing one against the other, the prospect of a foreign army marching through Italy can bring only instability and devastation in its wake for all. He is, it seems, the Church’s shepherd after all. "
29 " This then is Borgia Rome: a city where a traveler entering the gates must still cross acres of country before he reaches the center, where animals still outnumber citizens, goats and cattle grazing the imperial ruins, their insistent teeth pulling weeds—and mortar—from between the stones of history. A city still struggling with a chasm of hardship between rich and poor, still ripped apart by gross family violence. But also a place of growing magnificence and confidence where, for the first time in centuries, the future no longer looks bleaker than the past, and where the new Pope has chosen for himself a name designed to foster a belief in magnificence again. Alexander "
30 " She has always felt safe inside his arms, this beautiful, powerful elder brother, whom so many fear but who has always been as tender as a lover with her. "
31 " What was once the language of secrecy is now the language of power. "
32 " Someone told me much later that you always know the people who are going to make a difference in your life, from the very first time you set eyes on them, even if you do not like them at all. "
― , The Birth of Venus
33 " The journey from Rome to Siena is harder than its distance warrants. Once outside the great walls of the city the route becomes as treacherous for humans as for animals. Before the coming of Our Lord, when men knew no better than to worship an army of badly behaved gods, the countryside around Rome was legendary for its fertility, with well-kept roads filled with carts and produce pouring into the city’s markets. But over centuries of the true faith, it has degenerated into wilderness and brigandry, divvied up between the families of the great Roman barons; men hidden inside castles and fortresses who would prefer to carry on slaughtering each other than to create stability together. "
34 " A young woman seeks sanctuary with us. It is not for us to deny her that right. Tell His Holiness that we will protect her with our lives and care for her until she is ready to leave.” Not even Alexander VI can storm a convent and get away with it. The "
35 " How do ugly men make their way through life? He thinks of Michelotto. When he walks down the street men take half a step back from him. But he, Cesare, wields a different power. His face has always been his first weapon. Look at me, it says. I am what you see: easy on the eye, strong to the taste, a man with substance, someone to admire, for how can beauty this natural lie? "
36 " Either you’re standing under your haloes, eyes up to heaven, or you’re munching apples in their faces and flashing your bush. I’m not even sure they know which one they prefer. The best you can do is choose when you change your costume "
37 " How do ugly men make their way through life? "
38 " you draw"(the painter) "
39 " Death was, after all, a temporary staging post in a longer journey "
40 " it is not what you do or don't do, but how convincingly you can be accused of it. "