“The wheel of fortune [...] tells us that we all only want victory. We all want to triumph. But we all have to learn to endure what comes. We have to learn to treat misfortune and great fortune with indifference. That is wisdom.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“When you pray, you know that you want something, that's always the first step. to let yourself know that you want something, that you yearn for it. sometimes that's the hardest thing to do. Because you have to have courage to know what you desire. You have to have courage to acknowledge that you are unhappy without it.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“All that that I learn just teaches me that I know nothing.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“Once more, I am watching the most powerful men in the kingdom bring their power to bear on a woman who has done nothing worse than live to the beat of her own heart, see with her own eyes; but this is not their tempo nor their vision and they cannot tolerate any other.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“In a way. Magic is the act of making a wish come about. Like praying, like plotting, like herbs, like exerting your will on the world, making something happen.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“Any woman who dares to make her own destiny will always put herself in danger.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“I put the charm bracelet away in the purse and return it to my jewel case. I don't need a spell to foresee the future; I am going to make it happen.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“When a man wants a mystery, it is generally better to leave him mystified. Nobody loves a clever woman.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“I am, at this moment, what I have always been to him: an object of beauty. He has never loved me as a woman.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“Sometimes you cannot help what you hear, you cannot help what you see.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“I am a queen" she observes. "It is natural that men are going to gather round me, hoping for a smile.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“I cannot know what the future will bring us," he says in a rapid undertone. "I cannot know where you will be given in marriage, nor what life might hold for me. But I can't let you go without telling you--without telling you at least once--that I love you."
I snatch a breath at the words. "Woodville--"
"I can offer you nothing; I am next to nothing, and you are the greatest lady in France. But I wanted you to know, I love you and I want you, and I have done since the day I first saw you."
"I should--"
"I have to tell you, you have to know. I have loved you honorably as a knight should do his lady, and I have loved you passionately as a man might a woman; and now, before I leave you, I want to tell you that I love you, I love you--" He breaks off and looks at me desperately. "I had to tell you," he repeats.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“Everything that highly educated men can do to obscure a simple truth, to make a woman doubt her feelings, to make her own thoughts a muddle, they do to her. They use their learning as a hurdle to herd her one way and then the other and then finally trap her in contradictions of which she can make no sense.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“He is fragile, like a prince of ice, of glass.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“He has lost his print upon the earth; he has lost any fire.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“But I want to be loved. I have always been loved. I want my husband to love me with a passion, like in a troubadour tale, like a knight.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“I don't know how much we will rise," I say stoutly. "And I have no fear of falling.
He looks at me. "You are ambitious to rise?"
"We are all on fortune's wheel," I say. "Without a doubt we will rise. We may fall. But still I have no fear of it.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“Personally, I don't think that having a water goddess for an ancestress is a guarantee of freedom against seasickness, nor come to that, shipwreck.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“I will make my own future, not predict it. I don’t need a charm to tell me what I hope will happen. I throw the gold charm which is like a wedding ring up in the air and catch it before it falls. This is my choice. I don’t need magic to reveal my desire. The enchantment is already done: I am in love; I am sworn to a man of earth; I am not going to give this man up. All I have to do is consider how we can stay together.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“She tried to live like an ordinary woman, but some women cannot live an ordinary life.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“Before God, I love you and cherish you more than anything in the world. Of course I want to marry you. I love you heart and soul.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“I am marrying the finest man I have ever known.” “It will cost you dear,” he warns. “It would be worse to lose him.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“You have to sit with your longing and know that you may not get what you want; you have to encounter the danger of longing for something without the expectation of getting your desire.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“I cannot know what the future will bring us,” he says in a rapid undertone. “I cannot know where you will be given in marriage, nor what life might hold for me. But I can’t let you go without telling you—without telling you at least once—that I love you.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“you are my joy. You are worth tens of thousands.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“Like almost all girls I don't know the date of my birth: my parents did not trouble to record the day and the time. I only know the year and the season, and I only know the season because my mother had a great desire for asparagus when she was carrying me and swears that she ate it too green and her bellyache brought on my birth.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“I would like you to have a beautiful day every day.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
“The most powerful men of the kingdom have dragged a duchess down and sent her out to be a marvel to the common people of London. They are so deeply afraid of her that they took the risk to dishonor their own. They are so anxious to save themselves that they thought they should throw her aside.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The Lady of the Rivers
Philippa Gregory
Born place: in Kenya
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“But everyone wanted to be a Big Swinging Dick, even the women. Big Swinging Dickettes.”
― Michael Lewis, quote from Liar's Poker
“Time may heal all wounds, but it does not erase the scars.”
― Jane Yolen, quote from Briar Rose
“On bad days I talk to Death constantly, not about suicide because honestly that's not dramatic enough. Most of us love the stage and suicide is definitely your last performance and being addicted to the stage, suicide was never an option - plus people get to look you over and stare at your fatty bits and you can't cross your legs to give that flattering thigh angle and that's depressing. So we talk. She says things no one else seems to come up with, like let's have a hotdog and then it's like nothing's impossible.
She told me once there is a part of her in everyone, though Neil believes I'm more Delirium than Tori, and Death taught me to accept that, you know, wear your butterflies with pride. And when I do accept that, I know Death is somewhere inside of me. She was the kind of girl all the girls wanted to be, I believe, because of her acceptance of "what is." She keeps reminding me there is change in the "what is" but change cannot be made till you accept the "what is.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Death: The High Cost of Living Collected
“I have always been faithful to you if faithful means the experience against which everything else has been measured.”
― Anita Shreve, quote from The Last Time They Met
“Sparhawk grinned. "If Martel finds out that he's drinking again, he'll reach down his throat and pull his heart out." "Can you actually do that to a man?" "You can if your arm's long enough, and if you know what you're looking for.[...]”
― David Eddings, quote from The Diamond Throne
The Jesus Incident
The New Life
The Maelstrom
The Story of My LifeBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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