“ As Danton sees it, the most bizarre aspect of Camille's character is his desire to scribble over every blank surface; he sees a guileless piece of paper, virgin and harmless, and persecutes it till it… Hilary Mantel
“ ALL JUNE, disasters in the Vendée. At different times the rebels have Angers, Saumur, Chinon; are narrowly defeated in the battle for Nantes, where off the coast the British navy waits to support them… Hilary Mantel
“ A man’s power is in the half-light, in the half-seen movements of his hand and the unguessed-at expression of his face. It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which t… Hilary Mantel
“ It's just that you are practiced at persuading, and sometimes it's quite difficult, sir, to distinguish being persuaded by you from being knocked down in the street and stamped on. Hilary Mantel
“ You cannot tell people just part of the tale and then stop, or just tell them the parts you choose. Hilary Mantel
“ News, he formulates his denial, for whom it may concern: His Grace the cardinal wholly rejects any imputation that he has sent an evil spirit to wait upon the Duke of Norfolk. He deprecates the sugges… Hilary Mantel
“ Your love of glory must conquer your will to survive; or why fight at all? Why not be a smith, a brewer, a wool merchant? Why are you in the contest, if not to win, and if not to win, then to die? Hilary Mantel
“ Thomas More syas that the imperial troops, for their enjoyment, are roasting live babies on spits. Oh, he would! says Thomas Cromwell. Listen, soldiers don't do that. They're too busy carrying away ev… Hilary Mantel
“ They hurry in; the wind bangs a door behind them. Rafe takes his arm. He says, this silence of More's, it was never really silence, was it? It was loud with his treason; it was quibbling as far as qui… Hilary Mantel
“ These are good days for him: every day a fight he can win. Still serving your Hebrew God, I see, remarks Sir Thomas More. I mean, your idol Usury. But when More, a scholar revered through Europe, wake… Hilary Mantel
“ There is no obvious reason for voices and visions. My temperature is near normal and my pain relief is the usual moderate regime. Later the hallies, as I think of them, become less threatening, but mo… Hilary Mantel
“ The year is now 1774. Poseurs or not, it is time to grow up. It is time to enter the public realm, the world of public acts and public attitudes. Everything that happens now will happen in the light o… Hilary Mantel
“ The world corrupts me, I think. Or perhaps it's just the weather. It pulls me down and makes me think like you, that one should shrink inside, down and down to a little point of light, preserving one'… Hilary Mantel
“ The world beyond the glass is the world of masculine action. Everything she sees is what a man has built. But at each turn-off, each junction, women are waiting to know their fate. Hilary Mantel
“ The fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the world changes: Hilary Mantel
“ The Revolution has got frozen up. They have frozen it up with their talk of moderation. To stand still in Revolution is to slip backwards. Hilary Mantel
