The Magnificent Century Quotes

“with outward cordiality, and”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Magnificent Century

“Public memory is short and public taste sups avidly on sentiment.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Magnificent Century

“In spite of poor government and the strife it produced, England was merrie.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Magnificent Century

“Giotto, the shepherd’s boy who humanized painting, paved the way for the Renaissance in art, while Nicola Pisano was doing the same for sculpture.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Magnificent Century

“Invention, after lying fallow for centuries, was to bloom again with the suddenness which can turn a desert into a riot of lupine overnight.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Magnificent Century

“After several years of struggle to bring the country to subjection, during which Henry had to keep armies in the field at ruinous cost, his rosy dreams of affluence changed to despair. He was close to the brink of bankruptcy when he gave in finally and allowed the terms which the moderates had advised in the beginning.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Magnificent Century

“The demands for vengeance, short of death, however, were so insistent that the wise counsels of Edward, the giver of victory, were swept aside. His brother, Edmund, who had played no part in the fighting, clamoured for the utmost severity, being rewarded himself with the earldom of Leicester and the state offices of the dead holder. Nothing in the way of punishment and confiscation was sweeping enough for the rapacious Mortimer, the demanding Gifford of Bath, the King’s Men and the Queen’s Men, who returned with outstretched palms for a share of the spoils. Henry himself was in favor of wholesale confiscation, which would relieve his debt. His hands itched for the feel, if not of the throat of London, at least its pockets.”
― Thomas B. Costain, The Magnificent Century