Dissolution Quotes

“In worshipping their nationhood men worship themselves and scorn others, and that is no healthy thing.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“It seems a universal rule in this world that people will always look for victims and scapegoats, does it not? Especially at times of difficulty and tension.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“If I knocked and waited at every door, who knows what I might miss?”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“You untangle a knot with slow teasing, not sharp pulling, and believe me we have here a knot such as I have never seen. But I will unpick it. I will.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“...you should not insult yourself so, sir. Is there not enough suffering in the world?”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“Around thrones the thunder rolls.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“How men fear the chaos of the world, I thought, and the yawning eternity hereafter. So we build patterns to explain its terrible mysteries and reassure ourselves we are safe in this world and beyond.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“This new world was no Christian commonwealth; it never would be. It was in truth no better than the old, no less ruled by power and vanity.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“If a ruler who wants to act honourably is surrounded by unscrupulous men, his downfall is inevitable.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“But since printing came in no one wants illustrated works, they are happy with these cheap books with their ugly, square letters all squashed together.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“The echoes of childhood torments have great power, even when not brought to mind in such an inexplicable and horrifying way.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“The Bible says God made man in his image, but I think we make and remake him in whatever image happens to suit our shifting needs.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“he would skin a flea for the fat on its arse.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“there is nothing under the moon, however fine, that is not subject to corruption.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“This new world was no Christian commonwealth; it never would be. It was in truth no better than the old, no less ruled by power and vanity. I remembered the gaudy, hobbled birds shrieking mindlessly at each other and it seemed to me like an image of the king’s court itself, where papists and reformers fluttered and gabbled, struggling for power.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“Must you adumbrate the details, sir?”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“This was not the world we young reformers had sought to create when we sat talking at those endless dinners in each other’s houses. We had once believed with Erasmus that faith and charity would be enough to settle religious differences between men; but by that early winter of 1537 it had come to rebellion, an ever-increasing number of executions and greedy scrabblings for the lands of the monks.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“I can hardly believe this is the same man I saw kick a cripple not half an hour ago”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“One should always be afraid of danger." - Matthew Shardlake, Pg. 29”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“And in my wilful blindness I had refused to see what was before my eyes. How men fear the chaos of the world, I thought, and the yawning eternity hereafter. So we build patterns to explain its terrible mysteries and reassure ourselves we are safe in this world and beyond.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“That morning, for all I sat behind the stinking coffin of a murdered man, I found myself lulled along by the monks' beautiful, polyphonic chant. The psalms, and the Latin reading from Job, struck a chord.
'And thou sayest, how doth God know? Can he judge through the dark cloud? Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seest not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.'
Thick clouds indeed, I thought. I am still in a fog here.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“This fashion for symbolic designs that people have to puzzle out, it tires me. There are enough real mysteries in the world.'
'But you paint, sir.'
'If ever I find time I do. But I try in my poor way to show people directly and clearly, like Master Holbein. Art should resolve the mysteries of our being, not occlude them further.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“men fear the chaos of the world, I thought, and the yawning eternity hereafter. So we build patterns to explain its terrible mysteries and reassure ourselves we are safe in this world and beyond.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“You untangle a knot with slow teasing, not sharp pulling, and believe me we have here a knot such as I have never seen. But I will unpick it. I will.”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“In any investigation, what are the most relevant circumstances? None,” he would bark in reply. “All the circumstances are relevant, everything must be examined from every angle!”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“prior looked at each other with mutual distaste. ‘Mortifying yourself again, Jerome?”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“I will see you in the Bedlam, displayed as a warning of what perverted religion can do!”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“In a monastery fish pond.’ He crossed to the door and closed it carefully, before laying the”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“One can speak without understanding. What”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution

“you, like its predecessors, into a tortuous world of Tudor”
― C.J. Sansom, Dissolution