- Niccolo Machiavelli: And what do you want of Florence?
- Giuliano Della Rovere: Nothing.
- Niccolo Machiavelli: Oh, then, we will charge you nothing.
- Giuliano Della Rovere: You misunderstand. I ask that Florence... do... nothing.
- Niccolo Machiavelli: Ah, we let those French barbarians march through our principality and do... nothing. That's a different kind of nothing that will cost you something.
- Giuliano Della Rovere: [to Machiavelli and De Medici] Alexander's great game is the investiture of Naples. He knows France has claims upon it. He knows that Spain has claims upon it. He will play them both against each other like a spider with two flies.
- Cesare Borgia: [Seeing an ornately chained Native American for the first time] What Eden have they torn you from?
- Giulia Farnese: You look ill, Lucrezia.
- Lucrezia Borgia: Yes, I have been ill.
- [Referring to the assassinated Djem]
- Lucrezia Borgia: My dusky friend inhabits my dreams.
- Giulia Farnese: Do not think so much of Djem, my dear.
- Lucrezia Borgia: He has a secret that he can't speak of. His beautiful dark mouth opens, but no sound comes out.
- Giulia Farnese: In your dreams?
- Lucrezia Borgia: And I have to kiss those lips to comfort them.
- Giulia Farnese: Oh, dear!
- Lucrezia Borgia: Is it permissible, Donna Guilia, to kiss a dead Moor in my dreams?
- Giulia Farnese: [She smiles] All things are permissible in our dreams.
- Gioffre Borgia: It's a big responsibility.
- Rodrigo Borgia: Mmm, it is. Sometimes it even stops me sleeping at night.
- Gioffre Borgia: I will marry anyone you like that helps you to sleep.