- [first lines]
- Niccolo Machiavelli: I have no servants when here in Rome, my lord. Florence can no longer afford them.
- Cesare Borgia: Ah, democracy, Signor Machiavelli.
- Niccolo Machiavelli: They say it has its merits.
- Niccolo Machiavelli: [after a pause] What would you say is the perfect crime, my lord?
- Cesare Borgia: The one without a victim.
- Niccolo Machiavelli: [after a negative giggle] The one without suspect.
- Caterina Sforza: [to Cesare's soldiers with a rope around her neck and about to commit suicide] Come on! Give me a legendary death.
- Caterina Sforza: [after a long pause, she laughs] Does it take a Caterina Sforza to kill a Caterina Sforza?
- [No answer so she jumps]
- Cesare Borgia: Micheletto, where have you been?
- Micheletto: Talking with God.
- Cesare Borgia: And what did he say?
- Micheletto: Nothing.
- Cesare Borgia: [to his fellow Romagna princes] Never presume that I won't act on my worst instincts.