“Words have weight, something once said cannot be unsaid. Meaning is like a stone dropped into a pool; the ripples will spread and you cannot know what back they wash against.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“Just because one man calls him Allah and another calls him God is no reason for believers to be enemies.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“He may well speak French and Latin and half a dozen languages, but since he has nothing to say – what good are they?”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“You have to have faith that you are doing God's will. Sometimes you will not understand. Sometimes you will doubt. But if you are doing God's will, you can't be wrong, you can't go wrong.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“War does not answer war, war does not finish war. The only ending is peace.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“They say that at the mountain pass he looked back at his kingdom, his beautiful kingdom, and wept, and his mother told him to weep like a woman for what he could not hold as a man.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“True obedience can only happen when you secretly think you know better, and you choose to bow your head. Anything short of that is just agreement, and any ninny-in-waiting can agree.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“In Spain," indeed! He would have got no closer than the Indies if I had not showed him how to do it. Stupid puppy.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“We are both people of faith," he said quietly. "Our enemies should be the people who have no faith, neither in their God, nor in others, nor in themselves. The people who should face our crusade should be those who bring cruelty into the world for no reason but their own power. There is enough sin and wickedness to fight, without taking up arms against people who believe in a forgiving God and who try to lead a good life.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“I realize that I can laugh, that it is possible to be happy, that laughter and hope can come back to me.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“God does not make the way smooth for those He loves. He sends hardships to try them. Those that God loves the best are those who suffer the worst.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“Knowing that you do not know is to ask humbly, instead of tell arrogantly. That is the beginning of wisdom.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“when i first saw him i thought he was as beautiful as a knight from the romances, like a troubadour, like a poet. I thought i could be like a lady in a tower and he could sing beneath my window and
persuade me to love him. But although he has the looks of a
poet he doesn't have the wit. I can never get more than two
words out of him, and i begin to feel that i demean myself in trying to please him.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“Then life taught me a harder lesson, beloved: it is better to forgive an enemy than destroy him.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“I am a child of the true religion and you are an infidel,’ she said, but with less conviction than she had ever felt before. ‘We are both people of faith,’ he said quietly. ‘Our enemies should be the people who have no faith, neither in their God, nor in others, nor in themselves. The people who should face our crusade should be those who bring cruelty into the world for no reason but their own power. There is enough sin and wickedness to fight, without taking up arms against people who believe in a forgiving God and who try to lead a good life.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“He could not have got through the Sierra Nevada if she had not been sending him men and digging teams to level the road for him. No one else could have driven a road through there. He would have trusted no one else to support him, to hold the kingdom together as he pushed forwards. She could have conquered the mountains for no one else; he was the only one that could have attracted her support. What looked like a remarkable unity of two calculating players was deceptive—it was their passion which they played out on the political stage. She was a great queen because that was how she could evoke his desire. He was a great general in order to match her. It was their love, their lust, which drove them; almost as much as God.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“I was born to be Queen of England and mother of the next King of England. I have to fulfill my destiny, it is my God-given destiny.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“She would not let it go. “I had thought to be Queen of England and see my son on the throne,” she repeated.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
“And swore that whatever the obstacles before me, I should be Queen of England.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Constant Princess
Philippa Gregory
Born place: in Kenya
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“I have discovered that most people have no one to talk to, no one, that is, who really wants to listen. When it does at last dawn on a man that you really want to hear about his business, the look that comes over his face is something to see.”
― Walker Percy, quote from The Moviegoer
“Whether this propensity be one of those original principles in human nature of which no further account can be given; or whether, as seems more probable, it be the necessary consequence of the faculties of reason and speech, it belongs not to our present subject to inquire. It is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals, which seem to know neither this nor any other species of contracts. Two greyhounds, in running down the same hare, have sometimes the appearance of acting in some sort of concert. Each turns her towards his companion, or endeavours to intercept her when his companion turns her towards himself. This, however, is not the effect of any contract, but of the accidental concurrence of their passions in the same object at that particular time. Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog. Nobody ever saw one animal by its gestures and natural cries signify to another, this is mine, that yours; I am willing to give this for that. When an animal wants to obtain something either of a man or of another animal, it has no other means of persuasion but to gain the favour of those whose service it requires. A puppy fawns upon its dam, and a spaniel endeavours by a thousand attractions to engage the attention of its master who is at dinner, when it wants to be fed by him. Man sometimes uses the same arts with his brethren, and when he has no other means of engaging them to act according to his inclinations, endeavours by every servile and fawning attention to obtain their good will. He has not time, however, to do this upon every occasion. In civilised society he stands at all times in need of the cooperation and assistance of great multitudes, while his whole life is scarce sufficient to gain the friendship of a few persons. In almost every other race of animals each individual, when it is grown up to maturity, is entirely independent, and in its natural state has occasion for the assistance of no other living creature. But man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and show them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens. Even a beggar does not depend upon it entirely. The charity of well-disposed people, indeed, supplies him with the whole fund of his subsistence. But though this principle ultimately provides him with all the necessaries of life which he has occasion for, it neither does nor can provide him with them as he has occasion for them. The greater part of his occasional wants are supplied in the same manner as those of other people, by treaty, by barter, and by purchase. With the money which one man gives him he purchases food. The old clothes which another bestows upon him he exchanges for other old clothes which suit him better, or for lodging, or for food, or for money, with which he can buy either food, clothes, or lodging, as he has occasion.”
― Adam Smith, quote from The Wealth of Nations
“Unbelievable! I said, "What would I be doing walking the streets at night as a stuffed olive- gate-crashing cocktail parties?”
― Louise Rennison, quote from Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging
“Ever wonder why the gods created man, Grom? I personally think that we're the original reality show. They were so effing bored that they created us just so that they could feel better about themselves”
― Sherrilyn Kenyon, quote from Styxx
“Could be both,” said Will. “Haven’t you ever heard of pornographic gibberish before?”
― Cassandra Clare, quote from Clockwork Angel; Clockwork Prince; Clockwork Princess
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