She will look at you as women look at men, and she will judge you as a woman judge men, not on the strength of their arguments, and not in their cleverness or prowess in battle, but rather on the force of their character, the intensity of their passion, their strength of soul, their compassion, and... ah, this above all... their conversation.

Does it help if we're so strong-willed, stubborn, ambitious, and selfish that we always overcome everything in our way no matter what?" asked Wang-mu. "I think those are the pertinent virtues, yes," said Peter. "Then let's do it. That's us in spades.

I carry the seeds of death within me and plant them wherever I linger long enough to love.

In a way she actually preferred Peter to other people because of this. He always acted out of intelligent self-interest.

Before we are citizens, we are children, and it is as children that we come to understand freedom and authority, liberty and duty.

Knowledge is just opinion that you trust enough to act upon.

Twisted and perverse are the ways of the human mind," Jane intoned. "Pinocchio was such a dolt to try to become a real boy. He was much better off with a wooden head.