“(To Lucrezia Borgia) Do people say that I am both your father and your lover? Let the world, that heap of vermin as ridiculous as they are feeble-minded, believe the most absurd tales about the mighty! You must know that for those destined to dominate others, the ordinary rules of life are turned upside down and duty aquires an entirely new meaning. Good and evil are carried off to a higher, different plane.”
