Quotes from The Sunne in Splendour

“We tend to forget at times that it is the little ones, the children, who do suffer the greatest hurt. If we cannot comprehend why certain sorrows are visited upon us, how on earth can they?”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“Men are born to sin…What does matter most, is not that we err, it is that we do benefit from our mistakes, that we are capable of sincere repentance, of genuine contrition.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“I should like to freeze in time all those I do love, keep them somehow safe from the ravages of the passing years..."Rather like flowers pressed between the pages of a book!”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“I think the day might come, Bess, when all men will know of Dickon is what they were told by Tudor historians like Rous."
"Jesú, no!" Bess sounded both appalled and emphatic. "You mustn't think that. Whatever the lies being told about Dickon now, surely the truth will eventually win out. Scriptures does say that 'Great is truth and it prevails,' and I believe that, Grace."
Bess straightened up in the bed, shoved yet another pillow against her back. "I have to believe that," she said quietly. "Not just for Dickon's sake, but for us all. For when all is said and done, the truth be all we have.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“Richard, might I ask you something? We've talked tonight of what you must do, of what you can do, of what you ought to do.But we've said nothing of what you want to do.Richard, do you want to be King?"
At first, she thought he wasn't going to answer her. But as she studied his face, she saw he was turning her question over in his mind, seeking to answer it as honestly as he could.
"Yes," he said at last. "Yes...I do.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“Richard knew, of course, that his was thought to be an unlucky title; only twice before had a Richard ruled England, and both met violent ends.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“What do you know of sacrifice? Need I tell you of York's dead . . . of Sandal Castle? My brother did survive the battle, his first. He was seventeen and he entreated them to spare his life. They cut his throat. Their heads were then impaled on York's Micklegate Bar to please the House of Lancaster, to please a harlot and a madman. She had my father's head crowned with straw and she left a spike between the two. . . . That one, she said, was for York's other son.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“Edward was now expressing himself on the subject of the French King, drawing upon a vocabulary that a Southwark brothel-keeper might envy. Some of what he was saying was anatomically impossible, much of it was true and all of it envenomed.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“The art of governing, Dickon, is that of making use of talent wherever you do find it. Trust is too rare an attribute to make it your prime prerequisite for holding office. If I relied only upon those I truly do trust, we'd have a council of empty chairs!”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“What shall we drink to, Ned? To England?"

"I've a better thought than that. It is not precisely the season for it, with Epiphany still four days hence, and I daresay our lady mother would never forgive me for saying it! But blasphemy or not, I think it fitting, nonetheless."

He touched his cup to the one Richard now held. "To the Resurrection," he said.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“I would see him, Edward.'
It was no request; he knew it to be an ultimatum. He shook his head violently, not trusting his voice. Time passed. She was staring at him, saying nothing, and on her face was a look of stunned disbelief, of anguished accusation he knew would haunt him for the rest of his life. But when she spoke, her voice held no hint of tears. It was not a voice to offer either understanding or absolution, spoke of no quarter given, of a lifetime of love denied.
'God may forgive you for this,' she said, very slowly and distinctly, 'but I never shall.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“What followed was for him a very entertaining spectacle, with one of Edward's brothers seemingly intent upon the most subtle of seductions and the other barely able to force malmsey past the gorge rising in his throat.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“There's not a man alive who doesn't know fear, Dickon. The brave man is the one who has learned to hide it, that's all”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“Messages continued to arrive from the Earl of Warwick, urging Londoners to hold firm for King Harry. Marguerite d'Anjou and her son were expected to land at any time, while from St Albans, Edward sent word that Harry of Lancaster was to be considered a prisoner of state. At that, John Stockton, the Mayor of London, contracted a diplomatic virus and took to his bed.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“Francis stared down at the Duchess of York's letter. He swallowed, then read aloud in a husky voice, "It was showed by John Sponer that King Richard, late mercifully reigning upon us, was through great treason piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this City."
As Margaret listened, the embittered grey eyes had softened, misted with sudden tears.
"My brother may lie in an untended grave," she said, "but he does not lack for an epitaph.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“Removing his helmet, Edward knelt by the stream called Swillgate, a name that effectively quenched any desire to drink from its depths.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“She opened her mouth, clamped it shut again. This was new, this sudden favor shown Gloucester, had been brought back with him from Burgundy like some malevolent foreign pox.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“You seem to forget, Dickon, that we are dealing with the Spider King. Louis realized, just as you have, that it would take more to mate dog to cat than a shared lust for the English crown.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“I once came upon a definition of history as ‘the process by which complex truths are transformed into simplified falsehoods’. That is particularly true in the case of Richard III, where the normal medieval proclivity for moralizing and partisanship was further complicated by deliberate distortion to serve Tudor political needs.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“She might be that most unfortunate of women, a barren queen,”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“Ned never argued with their father, he was unfailingly polite and then nonchalantly went his own way; whereas, he, Edmund, deferred dutifully to his father's authority and then found himself resenting both his parent's austere discipline and his own reluctance to rebel.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

“There was even a small groundswell of sympathy for George, confined mainly among those who’d had no personal contact with him.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from The Sunne in Splendour

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Popular quotes

“The quickest way to exacerbate a dinner with my parents was being late for dinner with my parents. Well, other than bringing zombies to dinner. Because who kept brains in the fridge?”
― Chloe Neill, quote from Biting Bad

“No one chooses which culture to be born into or can be blamed for how that culture evolved in past centuries.”
― Thomas Sowell, quote from Black Rednecks and White Liberals

“Heaven’s Door"

I’d search the world for Heaven’s Door,

Over mountains and valleys, each sandy shore.

I’d find the stairway, soaring through clouds,

I'd climb each step, without making a sound.

I’d arrive at the door of glimmering gold,

I’d slip through unnoticed, not stirring a soul.

I’d gasp at its beauty, at its rivers and trees,

I’d stray from the paths, I’d hide among leaves.

I’d tiptoe unseen, under sun and sky blue,

I’d search every corner until I found you.

I’d capture a tear, catch a glimpse of your hair,

As you danced and you twirled, without any care.

You’d smile and you’d laugh, like a bird you’d be free,

I’d try not to cry, you’re there without me.

I’d stay my hand from touching your face,

From calling your name, to feel your embrace.

You’d open your mouth and your voice would be pure,

I’d treasure the sound, no more pain you’d endure.

I’d stay ‘til the sunset, when I’d have to leave,

A pain in my heart, my spirit in grief.

I’d blow you a kiss, let it drift to the sky,

I’d whisper ‘I love you’ and bid you goodbye.

I'd pass through the door, I’d descend out of view,

Knowing that one day, some day, I’d again be with you.

- Elsie”
― Tillie Cole, quote from Sweet Soul

“While Steve cooked dinner, I sat at one end of the sofa. Rosie lay coiled at the other. I eyed her suspiciously. She eyed me the same way, both of us hoping that we each didn’t just suddenly fling ourselves at the other in attack.”
― Terri Irwin, quote from Steve & Me

“I'm tired of people using their cars as biographical information centers, informing the world of their sad-sack lives and boring interests. Keep that shit to yourself. I don't want to know what college you went to, who you intend to vote for or what your plan is for world peace. I don't care if you visited the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore or the birthplace of Wink Martindale. And I'm not interested in what radio station you listen to or what bands you like. In fact, I'm not interested in you in any way, except to see you in my rearview mirror.

Furthermore, I can do without your profession of faith in God, Allah, Jehova, Yahweh, Peter Cottonail or whoever the fuck it is you've turned your life over to; please keep your superstitions private. I can't tell how happy it would make me to someday drive up to a flaming auto wreck and see smoke curling up around one of those little fish symbols with Jesus written inside it. And as far as I'm concerned you can include the Darwin/fish-with-feet-evolution symbol too. Far too cute for my taste.

So keep the personal and autobiographical messages to yourself. Here's an idea: maybe you could paste them up inside your car, where you can see them and I can't.”
― George Carlin, quote from When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

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