Collatine's fair love, Lucrece the chaste.
-- Narrator (Line 7)

Importance: This quote appears at the end of the very first stanza. It is important because it introduces Lucrece. Looking at how she is described here gives readers a sense of how to understand her character. She is first named by her relationship to a man, as "Collatine's fair love," a possessive construction that shows that, as his wife, she essentially belongs to him (7). Then readers are told what kind of person Lucrece is: "chaste," presented here as the most important thing she could be to a Roman society (7).

So then we do neglect / The thing we have and, all for want of wit, / Make something nothing by augmenting it.
-- Narrator (Lines 152 – 155)

Importance: This line appears while Tarquin is debating whether or not he will assault Lucrece. It is ambiguous whether this thought belongs to Tarquin or to the narrator, but it is one of many moral precepts...