C.J. Sansom Quotes

Six wives the King's had now.' Barak's words dragged me from my reverie. 'We can't even get one between us.

Conscience,' Hobbey said with infinite sadness. 'I had one once. Ambition killed it.

It seems a universal rule in this world that people will always look for victims and scapegoats, does it not? Especially at times of difficulty and tension.

We of alien looks or words must stick together.

I suppose we were drawn to each other because neither of us quite fitted in.

Have you ever thought what a God would be like who actually ordained and executed the cruelty that is in [the biblical Book of Revelation]? A holocaust of mankind. Yet so many of these Bible-men accept the idea without a second thought.

How men fear the chaos of the world, I thought, and the yawning eternity hereafter. So we build patterns to explain its terrible mysteries and reassure ourselves we are safe in this world and beyond.

But since printing came in no one wants illustrated works, they are happy with these cheap books with their ugly, square letters all squashed together.

Like all lawyers, I was delighted by gratitude. It happened so rarely.

But if we never acted except when we were certain our motives were pure, we would never act at all.

I had made the suggestion to her more than once before; but it was an odd fact that the most difficult and hostile clients were often the most reluctant to leave, as though they wanted to stay and plague you out of spite.

Around thrones the thunder rolls.

If a ruler who wants to act honourably is surrounded by unscrupulous men, his downfall is inevitable.

In worshipping their nationhood men worship themselves and scorn others, and that is no healthy thing.

The echoes of childhood torments have great power, even when not brought to mind in such an inexplicable and horrifying way.

Man is an angry, savage being. Sometimes faith becomes an excuse for battle. It is no real faith then. In justifying their positions in the name of God, men silence God.