“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
“Good morning,” she said. “Are you drunk?” She noticed what a split second it took for him to flare into aggression. “Do… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“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
“The Revolution is your bride,” he said. “As the Church is the Bride of Christ.” — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“In the Convention tomorrow I shall put him up to confront Saint-Just. Imagine it. Our man the picture of starched rectitude, and… — 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
“Messengers wait outside the door, to carry urgent orders for release. It is difficult, when the pen skips over a name, to… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“...and I sometimes think that the fading out of the individual personality is what one should desire, not the status of a… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“At first they’d thought the guillotine would be a sweet, clean business, but when you have twenty, perhaps thirty heads to take… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“But just as everything was going along politely, quietly and wonderfully — in poured Citizen Danton and his crew.” — 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
“Gradually, you see, our people are coming into the power they have always thought is their due.” — 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
“I am no one’s agent. I am the agent of the law. All the conspiracies pass through my hands. The Committee, you… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“You would save them. If you could.” “No. There are periods in revolution when to live is a crime, and people must… — 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
“Suppose he found that persistent unsparing voice at his elbow one day, claiming that Danton lacked probity; he had an answer, pat,… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
When I wrote about the French Revolution, I didn't choose to write about aristocrats; I chose characters who began their lives in… — 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
“The Revolution has got frozen up. They have frozen it up with their talk of moderation. To stand still in Revolution is… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“This may interest you. A letter from my dear cousin Fouquier-Tinville.” Camille cast an eye over his relative’s best handwriting. “Squirm, flattery,… — 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
“The Robespierre women (as one tended to think of them now) were all on display. Madame looked actively, rather intimidatingly benevolent; it… — Hilary Mantel Copy Share Image
“God knows,” Charpentier said, “I like the present scheme of things very little, but I dread to think what will happen if… — 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
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
