The Duke (Victorian Rebels, #4)

by Kerrigan Byrne

“You haven’t any idea the strength it takes to be a woman. In my experience, it is men who are the weaker sex. Either too undisciplined to control their baser, primal instincts or, conversely, they are too fragile to endure the discomfort of honesty or integrity. Yet women endure and survive by whatever means we are able. And still we are either property or playthings. We have as much use in the eyes of the law as a cow or a fertile plot of land. It is not wrong to mistreat us. To objectify us. To shame and demand things of us and bend us to your will. That is your right as a man and our duty as a woman. Is it any wonder the world is in chaos?”

“Men are terrified that were they to hand over power to women, they’d be humiliated at what a better job you’d do of everything.

“I firmly believe that hatred is a disease. And one does not cure a disease by propagating it, does one? I believe, I know, that kindness can be infectious too. And that is something worth diffusion. That is why I am attempting this undertaking. To show kindness to those who don’t know the meaning of the word.”

“I believe you find your way out of the mire with small but consistent victories,” she mused, giving him a sad smile. “But you must look for the light, as it will not always find you. You must stop to marvel at commonplace miracles. You must find wonder in the mundane. To me it’s like weeding through a cacophony to find a melody, and then learning to hum along.”

“Pity is not disgrace, it is compassion. And compassion is something that everyone deserves.”

“Life, with all its perils and torments, still belongs to the living. We have a responsibility to live it. You should not waste it by giving over to bleak despair.”