“ [T]here comes a point where the fear is too great and the human spirit just gives up and a child wanders off numb and directionless and ends up following a crowd and watching a killing. Hilary Mantel
“ You said,' Camille protested, 'that when you wanted to get on terms with Gabrielle you cultivated her mother. It's true, everybody saw you doing it, boasting in Italian and rolling your eyes and doing… Hilary Mantel
“ When Stephen comes into a room, the furnishings shrink from him. Chairs scuttle backwards. Joint-stools flatten themselves like pissing bitches. The woollen Bible figures in the king’s tapestries lift… Hilary Mantel
“ To his inner ear, the cardinal speaks. He says, I saw you, Crumb, when you were at Elvetham: scratching your balls in the dawn and wondering at the violence of the king’s whims. If he wants a new wife… Hilary Mantel
“ The multitude, Cavendish says, is always desirous of a change. They never see a great man set up but they must pull him down--for the novelty of the thing. Hilary Mantel
“ The multitude is always desirous of a change. They never see a great man set up but they must pull him down - for the novelty of the thing. Hilary Mantel
“ The king takes a deep ragged breath. He's been shouting. Now – and it's a narrow thing – he decides to laugh. ‘You advocate prudence. Prudence is a virtue. But there are other virtues that belong to p… Hilary Mantel
“ Once, in Thessaly, there was a poet called Simonides. He was commissioned to appear at a banquet, given by a man called Scopas, and recite a lyric in praise of his host. Poets have strange vagaries, a… Hilary Mantel
“ Once they were young men of esprit, young men of élan. A quarter of a century has passed and they are grey or balding, flabby or paunchy, gone in the fetlock or missing some fingers, but still as arro… Hilary Mantel
“ No man as godly as George, the only fault he finds with God is that he made folk with too few orifices. If George could meet a woman with a quinny under her armpit, he would call out 'Glory be' and se… Hilary Mantel
“ Look, he says: once you have exhausted the process of negotiation and compromise, once you have fixed on the destruction of an enemy, that destruction must be swift and it must be perfect. Before you… Hilary Mantel
“ Last night he kept the vigil alone. He lay awake, wishing Liz back; waiting for her to come and lie beside him. It's true he is at Esher with the cardinal, not at home at the Austin Friars. But, he th… Hilary Mantel
“ Inside his copy of The Social Contract he keeps a letter from a young Picard, an enthusiast called Antoine Saint-Just: I know you, Robespierre, as I know God, by your works.When he suffers, as he does… Hilary Mantel
“ I resent you— Robespierre said. His words were lost. The People, he shouted, are everywhere good, and if they obstruct the Revolution—even, for example, at Toulon—we must blame their leaders.What are… Hilary Mantel
“ He draws a line under his conclusions. Says, 'Gregory, what should I do about the great worm?' 'Send a commission against it, sir,' the boy says. 'It must be put down.' He gives his son a long look. '… Hilary Mantel
“ He does not know what caused him to break off from Weston and walk out. Perhaps it was when the boy said 'forty-five or fifty'. As if, past mid-life, there is a second childhood, a new phase of innoce… Hilary Mantel
“ Florence and Milan had given him ideas more flexible than those of people who'd stayed at home. Hilary Mantel
“ Cranmer says, ‘We will try again with More. At least, if he refuses, he should give his reasons.’He swears under his breath, turns from the window. ‘We know his reasons. All Europe knows them. He is a… Hilary Mantel
