Are there any quotes you found particularly memorable, and if so, what about them rang true for you?

Are there any quotes you found particularly memorable, and if so, what about them rang true for you?

I can't recall any specific quotes that resonated with me. I will say I had to read some portions a time or two because I felt the prose was ambiguous and stilted in some passages.

There were a few I marked:

"Wishes granted were rarely the gifts they seemed."
"There was nothing more dangerous than a woman with a pen in her hand."
"All empires are the same empire to the poor and the conquered."
"Was there anything more dangerous than a man full of hope?"

I think I liked these because they felt true.

"She was stubborn as a well-built wall, as decided in her course as an avalanche."

I liked that one because it was so descriptive.

The most memorable quote that resonated with me occurred when Santangel asked Luzia what she would do with a fortune in gold: "....I would buy a great deal of books, and buy myself a house to read them in, and erect a high wall outside of the house, so no one would bother me." Given her life and the losses she suffered, this sounds ideal to me!!

I agree with those kimk quoted and for the same reasons! I would add “ Her aunt had warned her long ago that some people brought misery with them like weather” so true with toxic personalities!!
I also loved when Valentina finally figures out her self worth shouldn’t be based on her husband’s approval “You’re right. I’m stupid and sentimental. When we wed I was a foolish girl who hoped to love you. I grew into a foolish woman who hoped to please you. And now, well, I suppose I’m still a foolish woman who only hopes to be rid of you. Go away, Marius.”

I also appreciate and found the quote about societies fears and lack of respect for other cultures wonderful “ She might be a conversa or a morisca. Most of the magic that survived in Spain came from Morvedre or Zaragoza or Yepes. But who knew how long any of it would last, lost to exile and the Inquisition, magic bleeding away with the bodies of Jews and Muslims, their poetry silenced, their knowledge buried in the stones of synagogues made into churches, the arches of Mudéjar palaces. The tolerance for mysterious texts like the Picatrix would be stamped out by the Pope, and King Philip would follow.” This was a very poignant quote especially relevant today.

At the very end of the book, "Each city is new to them, each shore a strange one. Time has that effect on places, when enough of it has passed."

Haven't we all gone back to someplace and been surprised how our visual memory of it was no longer applicable? This is especially true of childhood surroundings; go back many years later and it looks very different.