But I knew from writing Mrs. Amwell's letters that the things a person most wanted to say were often the things they should keep tucked away inside.

Yet another reason I didn't meddle with the rich:  people always wanted what they have, their secrets most of all.

It is the most distressing thing, Eliza, to issue pain to someone, even when you know it is for the best.

I now stood at a crossroads, and I didn't dare look back at the road behind me—the road littered with monotony, complacency and other people's expectations.

If felt as though the universe, in her strange and nonsensical way, meant to reach out to me, to remind me of the enthusiasm I once had for the trifling bits of bygone eras, if only I could look beneath the dirt that had accumulated over time.

Why do we go to such lengths to protect the fragile minds of children? We only robbed them of the truth--and the chance to grow numb to it before it arrived with a hard knock on the door.

As a student, I'd been fascinated by the lives of ordinary people, those whose names weren't acknowledged and recorded in textbooks. And now, I'd stumbled on the mystery of one of those nameless, forgotten people - and a woman, no less.

Healing by way of vengeance ... no such thing existed; it never had. Hurting others had only injured me further.

... not everything in my life was how I imagined it would be, and that I hadn't lived up to my own potential. And worst of all, I'd been too scared to even try.

First, there was trust. Then, there was betrayal. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot be betrayed by someone you do not trust ... what you have learned is the same heart-wrenching journey of every woman to whom I have sold a poison. And it is, indeed, the same path for me.