- Rafaele Riario-Sansoni: Alessandro, what deep and grim secret have you discovered about Gacet?
- Alessandro Farnese: [entering] I've found none. He's either truly an innocent, or successfully sealed-off all doors which access his life.
- Alfonso di Calabria: No man who has known Rodrigo Borgia since boyhood is an innocent.
- Pietro Bembo: [below her window] Do you ever wish to excel at something beyond measure, and yet at each attempt, you get progressively worse?
- [chuckles]
- Pietro Bembo: Pietro Bembo, your servant...
- Lucrezia Borgia: Go away.
- Pietro Bembo: Pietro Bembo, your *disobedient* servant.
- Carlotta d'Aragona: He will not withdraw. He is too stubborn.
- Cesare Borgia: I am a Borgia. We invented stubborn.
- Carlotta d'Aragona: Yes, your withdraw may cause you embarrassment. But a man who has reason to be proud, knows the truth of himself within himself. Do you really care what others believe? Given they will believe what the choose about you anyway.
- Cesare Borgia: You are wise. And for that I love you more. But I cannot change who I am, even for the woman I love.
- Carlotta d'Aragona: Then, in reality, you do not truly know what love is.
- Pietro Bembo: Do you play the flute?
- Lucrezia Borgia: Not well...
- Pietro Bembo: Then we must play together. Perhaps our sour notes combined will turn vinegar into wine.
- Alfonso di Calabria: You must appoint a new Vice Chancellor. The Vatican at present is a body without a head. Movement without purpose. Too much work goes undo. Why are you waiting?
- Rodrigo Borgia: Why are you so impatient? Are you not content nibbling on our power as a rat does cheese?
- [laughter amongst the Cardinals]
- [last lines]
- Rodrigo Borgia: I am in your debt, young Farnese. Ask for something.
- Alessandro Farnese: The return of my sister Giulia. The heart is missing her.
- Rodrigo Borgia: As mine does for her. These past 8 months we have behaved more pauper than Pope. Soon we'll have our strength back. But we are not yet fully in control. Find a reason to justify Giulia return.