“ Suppose he found that persistent unsparing voice at his elbow one day, claiming that Danton lacked probity; he had an answer, pat, not a logical one, but one sufficiently chilling to put logic in abey… Hilary Mantel
“ Rumours crop in the short summer nights. Dawn finds them like mushroomsin the damp grass. Members of Thomas Cromwell's household have been seeking a midwife in the small hours of the morning. He is hi… Hilary Mantel
“ Right, Thomas Cromwell, she said. Make a note of this. No strange Dutch drinks. No women. No banned preachers in cellars. I know what you do.I don't know if I can stay out of cellars.Here's a bargain.… Hilary Mantel
“ Possibly it’s something women do: spend time imagining what it’s like to be each other.One can learn from that, he thinks. Hilary Mantel
“ One of the French lords says, To lose gracefully is an art that every gentleman cultivates. I hope to cultivate it too, he says. If you see an example I might follow, please point it out. Hilary Mantel
“ Nothing hurts, or perhaps it’s that everything hurts, because there is no separate pain that he can pick out. Hilary Mantel
“ Nobody knows how long the arrests wil go on and who else will be taken. He feels even he does not know, and he is in charge of it. Hilary Mantel
“ Mirabeau: If you have been told to clear us from this hall, you must ask for orders to use force. We shall leave our seats only at bayonet point. The King can cause us to be killed; tell him we all aw… Hilary Mantel
“ Men will tell you that they are so in love with you that it is making them ill. They will say they have stopped eating and sleeping. They say that they fear unless they can have you they will die. The… Hilary Mantel
“ It is wise to conceal the past even if there is nothing to conceal. 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 ab… Hilary Mantel
“ Illness strips you back to an authentic self, but not one you need to meet. Too much is claimed for authenticity. Painfully we learn to live in the world, and to be false. Then all our defences are kn… Hilary Mantel
“ I remembered the young man with his broad white smile and his ashen hair streaked with gold; the basted perfection of his firm flesh, and the grace of his hand clasping mine. I slotted the notes back… Hilary Mantel
“ I am no one’s agent. I am the agent of the law. All the conspiracies pass through my hands. The Committee, you know, draws its present unity from being conspired against. I do not know what would happ… Hilary Mantel
“ He tries not to give offense. He likes to think of himself by nature as reasonable and conciliatory. He can duck out, prevaricate, evade the issue. He can smile enigmatically and refuse to come down o… Hilary Mantel
“ He thinks, if you were born in Putney, you saw the river every day, and imagined it widening out to the sea. Even if you had never seen the ocean you had a picture of it in your head from what you had… Hilary Mantel
“ He never lives in a single reality, but in a shifting shadow-mesh of diplomatic possibilities. Hilary Mantel
“ He is struck by her overview of his situation. It is as if she has understood his life. He is taken by an impulse to clasp her hand and ask her to marry him; even if they did not get on in bed, she se… Hilary Mantel
“ God knows our hearts. There is no need for an idle formula or an intermediary. No need for language either: God is beyond translation. Hilary Mantel
