Quotes from Sharon Kay Penman

I'd not want to answer for the lives of other men; not at seventeen, by God's Grace.

Whilst stupidity may indeed be a sin, it is also possible to be too clever. I sometimes fear, John, that you are too clever by half.

Tonight, he said, we shall get quietly and thoroughly drunk...in memory of all that was lost. And on the morrow, I begin the struggle to win it back.

Forget the threat of Hell's infernal flames. The true torture would condemn a man to wait and wait and wait - for an eternity

Twilight was laying claim to the cité, and the sky was a deepening shade of lavender, spangled with stars and fleecy clouds the colour of plums.

This was the moment he most loved about tourneying, that first glorious sortie with banners streaming, trumpets blaring, and the earth atremble with pounding hooves as hundreds of knights came together in a spectacular clash of sound and fury.

When people want to insult a man, they cast slurs upon his courage. But the worst they can say about a woman is to impugn her chastity.

His was a lonely, unorthodox conviction that war was man's ultimate failure.

You might as well face it. You're not going to be able to fight for the crown. You'll just have to grit your teeth and let us hand it over to you at the bargaining table.

Geoffrey looked startled to see both his great-uncles bearing down upon him with such haste; he hadn't realized men their age could move so fast.

Indeed. But I was not thinking of his immortal soul, Matilda. I was thinking that history is chronicled by monks.

Hell and furies! Eleanor had begun to pace, her skirts swirling about her ankles. What was he thinking? When does he ever think? Richard straddled a chair and accepted a wine cup from Raoul. If he were to sell his brain, he could claim it had never been used.

Eleanor would have been indifferent to the immorality of her adultery, but would never have forgiven the stupidity of it.

All that is missing is the dancing bear.

Rumors are the easiest of all crops to tend, Richard. You need only sow a few seeds about and in no time at all, you'll reap a harvest of hatred.

It was a basic tenet of faith with men of Ranulf's class that a knight, trained in the ways of war since boyhood, could easily vanquish lesser foes, as much a belief in the superiority of blood and breeding as in the benefits of battle lore and killing competence. Ranulf had accepted this comforting conviction, too, but no one seemed to have told his assailants that they were inferior adversaries.

It is not easy to be stranded between two worlds, the sad truth is that we can never feel completely comfortable in either world.

Henry did not lack for physical courage; his was a moral cowardice.

There was even a small groundswell of sympathy for George, confined mainly among those who'd had no personal contact with him.

My father and brother were slain at Sandal Castle because they engaged a far superior force. It was daring, heroic, foolhardy…and fatal. I'll not make the same mistake.

She might be that most unfortunate of women, a barren queen

War is the least productive of men's pastimes, and the most indulgent.

I've never been so hungry that I was willing to lick honey off thorns.

There are secret sins and found-out sins, and it is foolish to worry about the first until it becomes the second.