112 Quotes by Sharon Kay Penman

Indeed. But I was not thinking of his immortal soul, Matilda. I was thinking that history is chronicled by monks.

She wanted to order him clapped in irons, as he so deserved. But she was stopped by what she saw in the faces of the watching men: disapproval, instinctive and involuntary, but disapproval, nonetheless. They were not comfortable when power was wielded by a woman, not at a man’s expense, a man who had just acquitted himself so spectacularly at Lincoln, winning their reluctant respect in a way she knew she never could.

Forget the threat of Hell’s infernal flames. The true torture would condemn a man to wait and wait and wait – for an eternity.

During the day, memories could be held at bay, but at night, dreams became the devil’s own accomplices.

Henry did not lack for physical courage; his was a moral cowardice.

There are secret sins and found-out sins, and it is foolish to worry about the first until it becomes the second.

I’ve never been so hungry that I was willing to lick honey off thorns.

Those who served both the Almighty and secular lords did their best to follow Jesus’s teachings and render unto Caesar the things which were Caesar’s, and unto God the things that were God’s, all the while praying they’d never have to choose between the two.

I’d not want to answer for the lives of other men; not at seventeen, by God’s Grace.