Quotes from The Reckoning

Sharon Kay Penman ·  592 pages

Rating: (7.4K votes)


“I’ll admit that my garden now grows hope in lavish profusion, leaving little room for anything else. I suppose it has squeezed out more practical plants like caution and common sense. Still, though, hope does not flourish in every garden, and I feel thankful it has taken root in mine.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Reckoning


“During the day, memories could be held at bay, but at night, dreams became the devil's own accomplices.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Reckoning


“Tonight," he said, "we shall get quietly and thoroughly drunk...in memory of all that was lost. And on the morrow, I begin the struggle to win it back.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Reckoning


“What is forgiveness worth without trust?”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Reckoning


“De Mortimer was willing to wager his hopes for salvation that self-interest was the one drink no man refused, but he had never understood why most men must sweeten it so lavishly ere they could swallow it.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Reckoning



“if a man is a fool to wed for love, he must be utterly daft to wed for lust. No one with sense would expect a candle to burn forever, so why should a flame kindled in bed?”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Reckoning


“...what an unfair advantage the dead had over the living, for there could be no rebuttal, no denial, nothing but the accusing silence of the grave.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Reckoning


“Marriage was a Sacrament, yet these festivities more often resembled pagan rites than Christian nuptials.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Reckoning


About the author

Sharon Kay Penman
Born place: in New York, The United States
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