151 Quotes by Stacy Schiff

It used to be that the longest unprotected border in the world was that between the United States and Canada. Today it’s the one between fact and fiction. If the two cozy up any closer together The National Enquirer will be out of business.

Nor was there a Greek word for “incest.” The Ptolemies carried the practice to an extreme. Of the fifteen or so family marriages, at least ten were full brother-sister unions.

Cleopatra descended from a long line of murderers and faithfully upheld the family tradition but was, for her time and place, remarkably well behaved.

Without mystery, there was no faith.

For ten generations her family had styled themselves pharaohs. The Ptolemies were in fact Macedonian Greek, which makes Cleopatra approximately as Egyptian as Elizabeth Taylor.

Until well into the evening, when the vermillion sun plunged precipitously into the harbor, Alexandria remained a swirl of reds and yellows, a swelling kaleidoscope of music, chaos, and color.

Who can adequately express his astonishment at the changes of fortune, and the mysterious vicissitudes in human affairs?

Politics have long been defined as “the systematic organization of hatreds.

A commanding woman versed in politics, diplomacy, and governance; fluent in nine languages; silver-tongued and charismatic, Cleopatra nonetheless seems the joint creation of Roman propagandists and Hollywood directors.