Just… be careful.’I stared at her, baffled. 'Of what?’'Of powerful men.

You can't spend his money if you're dead.''I'll acquire expensive habits in the afterlife.

If you aren't born with every advantage, you learn to take your chances.

The servants called them malenchki, little ghosts, because they were the smallest and the youngest, and because they haunted the Duke’s house like giggling phantoms…

I closed my eyes, feeling tears slide down my cheeks, and I reached out to the thing within me that I'd kept hidden for so long. I'm sorry, I whispered to it.I'm sorry I left you so long in the dark.I'm sorry, but I'm ready now.

What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men.

The world seemed suddenly large again. I wasn't sure I liked it.

I'm sorry it took me so long to see you, Alina. But I see you now.

Maybe love was superstition, a prayer we said to keep the truth of loneliness at bay. (...) The stars looked like they were close together, when really they were millions of miles apart. In the end, maybe love just meant longing for something impossibly bright and forever out of reach.