The bird with the thorn in its breast, it follows an immutable law; it is driven by it knows not what to impale itself, and die singing. At the very … - Colleen McCullough

When we press the thorn to our chest we know, we understand, and still we do it.

But we, when we put the thorns in our breasts, we know. We understand. And still we do it. Still we do it.

But we, when we put the thorns in our breasts, we know...we understand...and still we do it. Still we do it.

Her tears were blinding her, the grief in her heart new, for until now she had never owned anything worth grieving for.

Dr. Murray made it clear to me before I left that a woman who enhoys the Act is as loose as a harlot. God gives pleasure in it only to husbands. Women are the source of evil and temptation, therefore women are to blame when men fall into fleshly error. It was Eve who seduced Adam, Eve who entered into league with the serpent, who was the Devil in disguise. So the only pleasure women are allowed is in their children.

It was four hundred years since a Julius had sat in the consul’s ivory curule chair,