You can have a silence full of words. A lute retains, in its bowl, the notes it has played. The viol, in its strings, holds a concord. A shriveled petal can hold its scent, a prayer can rattle with cu...
Why does everything you know, and everything you’ve learned, confirm you in what you believed before? Whereas in my case, what I grew up with, and what I thought I believed, is chipped away a little a...
When he wakes he has to learn the lack of her all over again
We may be tainted with pragmatism, but it only needs a clash of personalities to remind us of our principles.
Todos os rios correm para o mar, e o mar não se enche.
Thomas More still has some credit with the king. And he has written him a letter, saying, he manages to smile, that I am Wycliffe, Luther and Zwingli rolled together and tied up in string—one reformer...
This relentless bonhomie of yours, I knew it would wear out in the end. It is a coin that has changed hands so often. And now the small silver is worn out and we see the base metal.
This may interest you. A letter from my dear cousin Fouquier-Tinville. Camille cast an eye over his relative’s best handwriting.Squirm, flattery, abasement, squirm, dearest sweetest Camille, squirm sq...
They tell us that the rules of power and the rules of war are the same, the art is to deceive; and you will deceive, and be deceived in your turn, whether you are an ambassador or a suitor.
They say that at Thomas More’s trial, Master Secretary here followed the jury to their deliberations, and when they were seated he closed the door behind him and he laid down the law. Let me put you o...
These are days of brutal truth from Tyndale. Saints are not your friends and they will not protect you. They cannot help you to salvation. You cannot engage them to your service with prayers and candl...
There was a man called Chaumette, scruffy and sharp-featured. He hated the aristocrats and he also hated prostitutes, and the two things used to get quite confused in his mind.
There is only one penalty for high treason: for a man, to be hanged, cut down alive and eviscerated, or for a woman, to be burned. The king may vary the sentence to decapitation; only poisoners are bo...
There are codes so subtle that they change their whole meaning in half a line, or in a syllable, or in a pause, a caesura.
The wine is one of those big, noble wines that Brandon favours, and Chapuys drinks appreciatively and says I don't understand it, nothing do I understand in this benighted country. Is Cranmer Pope now...
The authorities in Yorkshire have rounded up their rioters, and divided them into those to be charged with affray and manslaughter, and those to be indicted for murder and rape. Rape? Since when do fo...
Statements, indictments, bills are circulated, shuffled between judges, prosecutors, the Attorney General, the Lord Chancellor’s office; each step in the process clear, logical, and designed to create...
Our virtues make us; but virtues are not enough, we must deploy our vices at times.
Let us say, his will is convinced, but not his conscience.
If you knew at twenty what you know at thirty-five, what a marvellous life you could have; on the other hand, you might find that you couldn't be bothered to have any life at all.