Kushiel's Dart (Phèdre's Trilogy, #1)

by Jacqueline Carey

but this I know is true: When Love cast me out, it was Cruelty who took pity upon me.

It’s funny, how one can look back on a sorrow one thought one might well die of at the time, and know that one had not yet reckoned the tenth part of true grief.

happiness limits the amount of suffering one is willing to inflict upon others.

“If I had to fall from Cassiel’s grace,” he said softly, “at least I know it took a courtesan worthy of kings to do it.”