“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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