Clementine

“Aurelia frowned. "Are you saying that you hang around the women at court to gather intel?" "Oh, Your Grace, you are quick on the uptake," he said with an impressed look on his face. "It's not fair. Flaminius always gets the hot ones. Does he have to get the smart ones too?”
― Therisa Peimer, Taming Flame

“It is not every man's fate to marry the woman who loves him best”
― Jane Austen, Emma

“But these few are the salt of the earth; without them, human life would become a stagnant pool. Not only is it they who introduce good things which did not before exist, it is they who keep the life in those which already existed.”
― John Stewart Mill, On Liberty

“The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls