Woman 1: Christine, look— it's the Black Widow!
Woman 2: It's her all right— Madame Natasha! There's a woman with her own mind— definitely the Gloria Steinem of the jumpsuit set.
And for the first time in many days— the Widow smiles.

— Daredevil v1 #91

I discovered the writer, Leo Tolstoy, in a muddy ditch that held more blood than rain. One of the soldiers loved his words— and then, so did I. “All, everything that I understand,” he wrote, “I understand only because I love.”

That was so many years ago. I learned it in trenches with bullets flying overhead, pressed back to back with grizzled starving men who would have laid down their lives for mine. I learned it from a ribbon tied around my ring finger. I learned it from a kick inside my belly. I learned it from death, and hardship, and brief acts of inexplicable kindness. I learned love from sacrifice. I learned love from living. And no matter where I've gone, or what I've done— all the dark things I do not regret, but will never speak of— that is one part of me I have always kept safe.

Tolstoy will live forever. Some people do. But that's not enough. It's not the length of a life that matters, just the depth of it. The chances we take. The paths we choose. How we go on after our hearts break. Hearts always break. And so we bend with our hearts. And we sway. But in the end, what matters is that we loved and lived.

— Black Widow v6 #5

Natasha: You keep impressive company these days, Davidoff. I'm honored.
Davidoff: Not as much as I, fair one. Indeed, you are more beautiful than you are deadly…
Natasha: I think you have it backwards, General. In fact, I know you do.

— Daredevil v1 #369

Yelena: Why? Why would you do this to me?
Natasha: I wanted to save you.

— Black Widow v2 #3

Natasha: What is this, the old days? You're still spouting that party-line crap? Have you ever been to America, Lyudmila? Have you ever met those people you hate so much?
Lyudmila: I didn't have to. They came here! They came here with their capitalism and their market forces, and they destroyed us, Natasha. They destroyed us!
Natasha: No. We did it ourselves. We did it ourselves. All they did was hand us the gun. This stops. All of it. Right here, right now.

— Black Widow v4 #5

Listen, Rooskaya, I don't want to hurt you, and you don't want to "be" me. Do you really understand what it means to be a spy, little one? I was a dancer, did you know that? The ballet…

I spent my entire childhood straining to see the world on tiptoe: aching to be good enough, graceful enough, strong enough to dance. And I did, Yelena Belova. I did dance, on point, in pink satin shoes, my arm stretching open to the world. Then Alexi got tangled in it— my dear husband— in the web. Next, my career, my country… you learn to be lost all the time, so as never to direct anyone to your employers. Or your heart. Or your vulnerabilities.

And for what, Rooskaya, for what? To play pawn to any one of a dozen governments that will shoot you in the back just for becoming the dispassionate people they require?

You push on and on, never knowing what will next make you suddenly aware of the cold. Something as devastating as the death of a friend? Or something as subtle as a birthday ignored? Why be the Widow, Rooskaya, when you can be Yelena?

— Black Widow v1 #2

Clint: Wait, Natasha! No matter who he is… or what he's done— you can't kill him!
Natasha: I have no choice, my darling. If we are all to die, than I shall make certain that Ixar does not live to boast of his victory! But my patience grows short! Surrender at once— or your mad quest for power shall end in death!
Ixar: I… don't believe you! I…
Natasha: Look into my eyes, Ixar! Look deep into the eyes of the Black Widow! Are these the eyes of one who deals in empty words and idle threats? So, make your decision… at once!

— Avengers v1 #37

Natasha: You're insane! Hundreds of people will die!
Viper: Yes— the warmongering leaders of this corrupt nation! Their execution is long overdue! And in the revolution that will surely follow, all like them will die as well!
Natasha: No. Innocents will die. Millions of people who've done no one any harm— whose only crime is that they exist! You speak so casually of death, Viper. I grew up with death. I walked hand in hand with it all my life! I saw children starve in the ruins of Stalingrad, and men freeze solid as ice overnight. Because I know death so well… I know how supremely precious life is.

— Marvel Team-up v1 #85

Natasha: There's a lot of people to whom I have done wrong in my life. This I will admit. I very well may have— whatever this is— I very well may have it coming. But I do not care. I have done bad things but I have done much good, too. Real good. I will not go out quietly. And I will not go out this way. I will go out when I want to go. When I want to. I hope this you can understand.
Matt: A little bit. Yes.
Natasha: I am glad I'm here. Matthew— I do miss you. And I do love you. You know that. I miss us. I do. But I'm sorry, that's not why I came.

— Daredevil v2 #63

Natasha: I'm getting too old for this.
Yelena: But those are Russians he's going after!
Natasha: When will you learn, Yelena? Russians, Americans— those are people he's going after.
Yelena: I don't understand. She said she was too old for this, and then she went to defend our side. If she is old and tired, then why is she fighting? Especially for the Russians?
Stalyenko: She means she is tired of the short-sighted stupidity of men like me and Colonel Khan, not of fighting to stop us. She will never be too tired to battle against my ambitions. Nor yours, Belova. Nor yours…

— Black Widow v1 #3