Fludd Quotes

“Not a word, not a word of love, Prehaps, she thought, he does not love in the ordinary way. God loves us, after all, He manifests it in cancer, cholera, Siamese twins. Not all forms of love are comprehensible, and some forms of love destroy what they touch.”
― Hilary Mantel, Fludd

“Innocence is a bleeding wound without a bandage, a wound that opens with every casual knock from casual passers-by. Experience is an armour.”
― Hilary Mantel, Fludd

“And they say [money's] the root of all evil. Well, Protestants say that. Catholics know better.”
― Hilary Mantel, Fludd

“You are familiar, no doubt, with Sebastiano del Piombo's huge painting "The Raising of Lazarus", which hangs in the National Gallery in London, having been purchased in the last century from the Angerstein collection. Against a background of water, arched bridges, and a hot blue sky, a crowd of people -- presumably the neighbours -- cluster about the risen man. Lazarus has turned rather yellow in death, but he is a muscular, well-set-up type. Hid grave-clothes are draped like a towel over his head, and people lean towards him solicitously, and seem to confer; what he most resembles is a boxer in his corner. The expressions of those around are puzzled, mildly censorious. Here -- in the very act of extricating his right leg from a knot of the shroud --one feels his troubles are about to begin again. A woman -- Mary, or maybe Martha -- is whispering behind her hand. Christ points to the revenant, and holds up his other hand, fingers outstretched: so many round down, five to go.”
― Hilary Mantel, Fludd

“Christ died to free us from the burden of our sin, but he never, so far as [Sister Philomena] could see, lifted a finger to free us from our stupidity.”
― Hilary Mantel, Fludd

“People say, “loss,” she reflected, but they do not know what innocence is like. Innocence is a bleeding wound without a bandage, a wound that opens with every casual knock from casual passers-by. Experience is armour; and she felt already clad.”
― Hilary Mantel, Fludd

“Every possession is a loss,”
― Hilary Mantel, Fludd

“Christ died to free us from the burden of our sin, but he never, so far as she could see, lifted a finger to free us from our stupidity.”
― Hilary Mantel, Fludd

“You must have been studying her life.’ ‘We have a book in the convent library.’ ‘Is your library extensive?’ ‘Well, there’s some lives of the saints. Oh, and a Turf Guide, that’s Sister Anthony’s.”
― Hilary Mantel, Fludd