Quotes from Hilary Mantel

I want a job, Lady Carey. It isn't enough to be a councillor, I need an official place in the household." "I'll tell her." "I want a post in the Jewel House. Or the Exchequer." She nods. "She made Tom Wyatt a poet. She made Harry Percy a madman. I'm sure she has some ideas about what to make you.

Vere dignum et justum est, aequum et salutare.

Henry had sat up: 'I can do as it pleases me,' his monarch said. 'God would not allow my pleasure to be contrary to his design, nor my designs to be impeded by his will.' A shadow of cunning had crossed his face. 'And Gardiner himself said so.' Henry

They say you had a trade as a blacksmith; is that correct?" Now she will say, shoe a horse? "It was my father's trade." "I begin to understand you." She nods. "The blacksmith makes his own tools.

I am willing, though, to tear up the timetable and take some new routes; and I know I shall find, at some unlikely terminus, a hand that is meant to rest in mine.

Thomas thinks, he was being unnecessarily Welsh.

There is air between their ribs, their flesh is honeycombed with light, and the marrow of their bones is molten with God's grace.

I can pity you, without entirely believing you.

She is selling herself by the inch. The gentlemen all say you are advising her. She wants a present in cash for every advance above her knee.' 'Not like you, Mary. One push backwards and, good girl, here's your fourpence.' 'Well. You know. If king are doing the pushing." She laughs. "Anne has very long legs. By the time he comes to her secret part he will be bankrupt. The French wars will be cheap, in comparison.

Did I?' Norfolk looks alarmed. 'It's come to that?

was proud of what he did. He thought if you let the people read God's word for themselves, Christendom would fall apart. There would be no more government, no more justice.' 'He believed this? Truly?' 'That we needed the constraint of ignorance? Yes.' 'He did not give much credit to his fellow man.

I have risen above this, he thinks: this day, this waning light, these snares. I am the Damascene cat. I have travelled so far to get here, and nothing they do disturbs me now, nor disquiets me, high on my branch.

The only things he cannot remember are the things he never knew. His

I am praying for everybody. I am praying for everything. That is what it is, to be a cardinal. Only when I say to the Lord, "Now, about Thomas Cromwell—" does God say to me, "Wolsey, what have I told you? Don't you know when to give up?

Try to learn this truth Maximilien', Father Herivaux said: 'most people are lazy, and will take you at your own valuation. Make sure the valuation you put on yourself is high.

was the king himself, solicitous for a mother-to-be, who had advised Rafe to send Helen to Kent, away from the pestilence: but now he has forgotten to ask after her.

You don't get on by being original. You don't get on by being bright. You don't get on by being strong. You get on by being a subtle crook.

Cromwell. I am not such a hard man that I don't see how you are left. Do you know what I say? I say I don't know one man in England who would have done what you have done, for a man disgraced and fallen. The king says so. Even him, Chapuys, the Emperor's man, he says, you cannot fault what's-he-called. I say, it's a pity you ever saw Wolsey. It's a pity you don't work for me." "Well," he says, "we all want

I tell you, Cromwell, you've got face, coming here." "My lord — you sent for me." "Did I?" Norfolk looks alarmed. "It's come to that?

I wish I could divorce you," George says. "I wish you had a pre-contract, but Jesus, no chance of that, the fields were black with men running in the other direction." Monseigneur holds up a hand. "Please.

England needs roads, forts, harbours, bridges. Men need work. It's a shame to see them begging their bread, when honest labour could keep the realm secure. Can we not put them together, the hands and the task?

Avery says, 'This custody is for your protection.' 'You think it is I who needs protection? What about Cromwell here? Perhaps we should all take each other into custody?

because we must please her, you know?

He gets Sir Francis round and gets him drunk. He, Cromwell, can trust himself; when he was young, he learned to drink with Germans.