Jean Plaidy

“He had been so friendly, and he had shown clearly that he did not think me in the least stupid--or, if he did, he liked it.”

“People often vented their rage on those who were the victims of their neglect because they were in truth blaming themselves.”

“She took his hand and kissed it fervently. "I can never thank you enough for all you have given me. You snatched me from the dark pit of despair, of horror, and you set me here in the sunshine.”

“Is is said that those who study the ways of ambition learn patience.”

“Nature was more merciful than men, providing for those who suffered great pain such blessedness as fainting; but men were cruel and brought their victims out of faints that the pain might start again. (On being tortured/The Tower.)”

“He was what men called a religious man, which in his case meant he was a superstitious man. There was never a man less Christian; there was never one who made a greater show of piety.”

“Her fault had been in trying to keep it as tight as a mistress might. All a wife needed was a little more subtlety, and it had taken her two years of doubts and nightmares to realize this. Let him wander away from her, let him dally with others--it would but be to compare them with his incomparable queen.”

“When More had said that a man who cannot restrain his passions is essentially cruel, he spoke the truth.”

“What a good thing it is to have in this world one person of whom who need not cherish the smallest fear!”

“Trust Anne to turn a disadvantage into an asset!”

“People always grumbled. If things went well they wanted them to go better. Give them comfort and they wanted luxuries.”

“They were seated at the banquet side by side, immediately good friends, their great attraction being that each of them knew there was nothing to fear from the other.”

“...his dearest wish was that he could have a quiet life free from his obligations.”

“Gentlemen, if my love for you equaled my ignorance of everything concerning you, it would indeed be unbounded.”

“But our lives were not as they seemed, were they, Sophia? No one's life ever is.”

“Oh, the shame that I suffer now . . . the shame of a vanquished King.” And those were the last words of Henry Plantagenet.”

“And there he lay in his bed, a broken man, worn out by a way of life which had been thrust upon him because of the antics of a wayward pig.”

“I was always amused by the prayers of the saintly. “God do this, God don’t do that.” I thought God probably laughed at them too, unless He was a little annoyed by their temerity.”

“He embraced me before them all, and he cried: 'Let every man favor his own doctor. This Dr. Colet is the doctor for me....”

“I really believe there are some people who hate to contemplate the happiness of others.”

“How stupid lovers can be! But if they were not, there would be no story.”