Wolf Hall / Bring Up the Bodies Quotes

“Intrigue feeds on itself; conspiracies have neither mother nor father, and yet they thrive: the only thing to know is that no one knows anything. Though”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall & Bring Up The Bodies

“Statements, indictments, bills are circulated, shuffled between judges, prosecutors, the Attorney General, the Lord Chancellor’s office; each step in the process clear, logical, and designed to create corpses by due process of law.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall / Bring Up the Bodies

“He did not relish the topic; he sensed in Jane Rochford’s tone the peculiar cruelty of women. They fight with the poor weapons God has bestowed – spite, guile, skill in deceit – and it is likely that in conversations between themselves they trespass in places where a man would never trust his footing.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall / Bring Up the Bodies

“It is better not to try people, not to force them to desperation. Make them prosper; out of superfluity, they will be generous. Full bellies breed gentle manners. The pinch of famine makes monsters.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall / Bring Up the Bodies

“the only thing to know is that no one knows anything.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall & Bring Up The Bodies

“Life pays you out,”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall & Bring Up The Bodies

“How close we hug our enemies!”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall & Bring Up The Bodies

“It’s a lot of digging for a few seconds of excitement.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall & Bring Up The Bodies

“You don’t get on by being original. You don’t get on by being bright. You don’t get on by being strong. You get on by being a subtle crook;”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall & Bring Up The Bodies

“I think it’s just people. They always hope there may be something better.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall & Bring Up The Bodies

“Képzeljük el azt, hogy az ember egy bezárt ablakú szobácskában van, s érzékeli hogy mások is vannak a közelünkben, érzi az egyre gyengülő fényt. A szobában problémákat vetünk fel, játszmákat játszunk, embereinket egymás körül mozgatjuk; csupa elképzelt figura, melyek kemények, akár az elefántcsont, sötétek, mint az ébenfa, s meghatározott négyzeteken vezet át az útjuk. Aztán egyszer csak azt mondja az ember, én ezt nem bírom tovább, muszáj levegőhöz jutnom; kiront a szobából, egyenesen egy elvadult kertbe, ahol a fákról a bűnösök teste lóg; nincs itt már elefántcsont, se ébenfa, csak hús; haldoklás közben vadul panaszkodó nyelvük bűnökről fecseg. Ebben az esetben a következmény előtte jár az oknak. Amit álmodtunk, az már meg is történt. Nyúlunk a pengéért, de a vér már kiömlött. A bárányok lemészárolták és felfalták önmagukat. Odahozták a késeket az asztalhoz, felszeletelték magukat, és lecsipegették a húst a saját csontjaikról.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall / Bring Up the Bodies

“The world is not run from where he thinks. Not from his border fortresses, not even from Whitehall. The world is run from Antwerp, from Florence, from places he has never imagined; from Lisbon, from where the ships with sails of silk drift west and are burned up in the sun. Not from castle walls, but from counting houses, not by the call of the bugle but by the click of the abacus, not by the grate and click of the mechanism of the gun but by the scrape of the pen on the page of the promissory note that pays for the gun and the gunsmith and the powder and shot.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall & Bring Up The Bodies

“the English will forgive a king anything, until he tries to tax them.”
― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall & Bring Up the Bodies