- Cesare Borgia: [looking around] Now I can see that Charlotte and Carlotta are alike: benign, fair, loving. A man could live here happily for the rest of his days. With a peaceful heart, and a tranquil soul.
- Agapito Geraldini: A man, surely. But a Borgia...
- Cesare Borgia: [demonstrating sword play] If you know your enemy, and you know yourself, you will win a hundred battles. If you do not know your enemy, but you know yourself, you win half as many. If you do not know your enemy, and you do not know yourself, you will die.
- Agapito Geraldini: You *were* a god, but an angry one. Being a man makes you happier.
- Cesare Borgia: Though more ordinary.
- Isabella Matuzzi: Will you not ask me why I lied?
- Lucrezia Borgia: No. For us women, secrets serve as armor.
- Royal Advisor: You actually believe you will survive this onslaught?
- Cesare Borgia: I was born at this time - not a hundred years ago - not a thousand years hence - for a reason. Let us find out what that reason is...
- Cesare Borgia: [skewering a morsel] Let me tell you what will happen if you resist Cesare Borgia.
- [gently places it into Corte's mouth]
- Cesare Borgia: You will destroy your beautiful cathedral, your venerable university.
- [begins stuffing other foods in his mouth]
- Cesare Borgia: He will burn your magnificent garden. Murder your sons, rape your daughters.
- [now shoving his face into the platter]
- Cesare Borgia: I'll boil the flesh off your bodies, and use the bones to build a new cathedral! Dedicated to Cesare Borgia, Catalan! Now choose, death or joy...
- Bernardino da Corte: You! I choose you!
- Cesare Borgia: Cesare Borgia will enter the city at the hour of tours. You will bring forth the keys as the symbol of surrender. And to punish your avarice, bribe the Sforza guards with your own money... Cesare Borgia dismisses you.
- Ascanio Sforza: [sitting in a small cage] I warn you, free us at once, or die at the Emperor Maximillian's blade.
- Cesare Borgia: Those are my choices? Well, what should we do while we wait for his arrival. I did not think to bring cards.
- Ascanio Sforza: [to Ludovico] I told you he does not scare.
- Ascanio Sforza: [to Cesare] The rattle of swords is always the first gambit.
- Cesare Borgia: And the second gambit is to beg?
- [last lines]
- Louis d'Orleans: You have proven yourself worthy of my trust. And worthy of my love.
- [bestows a royal kiss]
- Louis d'Orleans: You are sad.
- Cesare Borgia: Triumph doesn't taste the way I thought, Louis. It does not fill the stomach.
- Louis d'Orleans: Well, what does?
- Cesare Borgia: Therein lies my sadness.