“If I am the pawn of the gods, it is because they know me so well, not because they make my mind up for me.”

“I'll be your minister--""Of the exchequer? You'd rob me blind.""I would never steal from you," he'd said hotly."Oh? Where is my tourmaline necklace? Where are my missing earrings?""That necklace wa...”

“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...”

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

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

“I didn't think about being king,” he said, his voice hoarse.Eddis stared. “Your capacity to land yourself in a mess because you didn't think first, Eugenides, will never cease to amaze me. What do ...”

“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”

“I've always said that idleness dulls the spirit. We have to keep the brain busy, or at least the hands if we don't have a brain.”

“If your workplace was somehow transplanted into the jungle and everyone was forced to survive at a very primitive level, it's safe to say that eventually your boss would rape you.”