The Autobiography of Henry VIII Quotes

“Thus we use our supposed "knowledge" of others to speak on their behalf, and condemn them for their words we ourselves put in their silent mouths.”
― Margaret George, The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers

“Yet we always envy others, comparing our shadows to their sunlit sides.”
― Margaret George, The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers

“Boredom is that awful state of inaction when the very medicine ― that is, activity ― which could solve it, is seen as odious.
Archery? It is too cold, and besides, the butts need re-covering; the rats have been at the straw.
Music? To hear it is tedious; to compose it, too taxing. And so on.
Of all the afflictions, boredom is ultimately the most unmanning.
Eventually, it transforms you into a great nothing who does nothing ― a cousin to sloth and a brother to melancholy.”
― Margaret George, The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers

“To recount these histories is like unravelling a thread: one means only to tell one little part, but then another comes in, and another, for they are all part of the same garment — Tudor, Lancaster, York, Plantagenet.”
― Margaret George, The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers

“Then it all came together—every particle of discontent, nostalgia, and resistance in England—fusing in the North. The North: two words to describe a territory and a state of mind. England was conquered and civilized from the South upwards, and as one approached the borders of Scotland—first through Yorkshire and then Durham and finally Northumberland—everything dwindled. The great forests gave way first to stunted trees and then to open, windswept moors; the towns shrank to villages and then to hamlets; cultivated fields were replaced by empty, wild spaces. Here the Cistercian monasteries flourished, they who removed themselves from the centers of civilization and relied on manual labour as a route to holiness. The sheep became scrawnier and their wool thicker, and the men became lawless and more secretive, clannish. Winter lasted eight months and even the summers were grey and raw, leading Northumberland men to claim they had “two winters—a white one and a green one.” Since ancient times these peripheral lands had gone their own way, little connected to anything further south. A few great warrior families—the Percys, the Nevilles, the Stanleys—had claimed overlordship of these dreary, cruel wastes, and through them, the Crown had demanded obeisance. But”
― Margaret George, The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers

“Thomas,” I said, coming forward to greet him. “How fortuitous that you should come to see me now!”
― Margaret George, The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers

“We want the sharers of our youth to remain forever young, to remind us of what we were, not of what we are.”
― Margaret George, The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers

“Beheading a Queen had not alarmed the populace as much as appointing one Finance Minister would.”
― Margaret George, The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers

“It was late that night before Anne and I met again. She seemed the same as always. Thus do changes of great moment disguise themselves as no change at all.”
― Margaret George, The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers

“falling,”
― Margaret George, The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers