“I do no damage. This is damage, this.” He picked up a paper from Camille’s desk. “I can’t read your writing, but… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Robespierre has never forgiven his friends the injuries he has done them, nor the kindnesses he has received from them, nor the… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“It’s all right for you, you and Danton. I have to go and stutter for two hours at the Jacobins and probably… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Some people know they are condemned; some have time to pray, and others die struggling and screaming, fighting to their last breath.… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“I think back to those days after the Bastille fell, the Mercure Nationale run from the back of the shop, that little… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Law of Suspects. Suspects are those: who have in any way aided tyranny (royal tyranny, Brissotin tyranny...); who cannot show that they… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“You must, of course. Robespierre doesn’t lie or cheat or steal, doesn’t get drunk, doesn’t fornicate—overmuch. He’s not a hedonist or a… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“There is no need for unanimity,” Saint- Just said. “It would have been desirable, but let’s get on. There are only two… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“I know what you want. One month after the ascension of Philippe the Gullible, M. Laclos found in a gutter, deceased. Blamed… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Life’s going to change. You thought it already had? Not nearly as much as it’s going to change now. Everything you disapprove… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“At the top of the Queen’s Staircase at the Tuileries, there is a series of communicating chambers, crowded every day with clerks,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Georges was in a rage. It is a spectacle to comtemplate, his rage. He tore off his cravat, strode about the room,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“On March 8 Danton mounted the tribune of the Convention. The patriots never forgot the shock of his sudden appearance, nor his… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“The Republic is six months old, and it’s flying apart. It has no cohesive force—only a monarchy has that. Surely you can… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“In Paris the swaying lanterns are lit in the streets; lights shine through water, fuzzy, diffuse. Saint-Just sits by an insufficient fire,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Provence and Artois will be back. Antoinette. She will resume her state. The priests will be back. Children now in their cradles… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Do you know Camille Desmoulins?” he asked. “Have you seen him? He’s one of these law-school boys. Never used anything more dangerous… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Again, take someone who’s crippled or deformed; they can’t be tied to the plank without a lot of sweat and heaving, and… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Has it ever occurred to you that Max feels the same basic contempt for you as you do for him?” “He feels… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“A pottery outside Paris was turning out his picture on thick glazed crockery in a strident yellow and blue. This is what… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
People will identify with a persecuted minority without asking themselves what they are identifying with. — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“The hunter is among the most innocent of men; living in the moment makes him feel pure. When he returns in the evening, his… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“But what would happen … I mean, what would be so awful … if they did meet up?” “Why, it would be like the… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
When you have committed enough words to paper, you feel you have a spine stiff enough to stand up in the wind. But when… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
At New Year's he had given Anne a present of silver forks with handles of rock crystal. He hopes she will use them to… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“The story of my own childhood is a complicated sentence that I am always trying to finish, to finish and put behind me. It… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“He wants to say, because Anne is not a carnal being, she is a calculating being, with a cold slick brain at work behind… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Come to that, don't pay out good money for horoscopes. If things are going to go badly for you, is that what you need… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“But my sins are my strength, he thinks; the sins I have done, that others have not even found the opportunity of committing. I… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Mirabeau: “If you have been told to clear us from this hall, you must ask for orders to use force. We shall leave our… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“Cardinal Campeggio has implored Katherine to bow to the king's will, accept that her marriage is invalid and retire to a convent. Certainly, she… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image