“He promised her that he would give her everything, everything she wanted, as men in love always do. And she trusted him despite herself, as women in love always do.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“A man will always promise to do more than he can do to a woman he cannot understand.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“Edward lives as if there is no tomorrow, Richard as if he wants no tomorrow, and George as though someone should give it to him for free.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“But I don't forget and I don't forgive.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“If there is love enough,then nothing-not nature, not even death itself- can come between two who love each other.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“The sons of York will destroy each other, one brother destroying another, uncles devouring nephews, fathers beheading sons. They are a house which has to have blood, and they will shed their own if they have no other enemy.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“I want to take you for pleasure, and hold you in my arms for desire. I want you to know that it is your kiss that I want, not another heir to the throne. You can know that I love you, quite for yourself, when I come to your bed, and not as the York’s broodmare.”
I tilt back my head and look at him under my eyelashes. “You think to bed me for love and not for children? Isn’t that sin?”
His arm comes around my waist and his palm cups my breast. “I shall make sure that it feels richly sinful.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“the bird sings as if to say that delight is easy, for those who desire it”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“For he loved her and he understood that a woman cannot always live as a man. He understood that she cannot always think as he thought, walk as he walked, breathe the air that he took in. She would always be a different being from him, listening to a different music, hearing a different sound, familiar with a different element.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“To save my son, I would plot with the devil himself.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“The law is what powerful men say it shall be.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“We have to be more royal than royalty itself or nobody will believe us.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“Only fools wait when their enemies are coming, to see if they may prove to be friends.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“As men have to fight, women have to wait and plan. This is your time for waiting and planning, and you must be constant and discreet.
Honesty matters so much less.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“I am not a yard of ribbon. I am not a leg of ham. I am not for sale to anyone.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“It’s a fool who is afraid of nothing,” I say. “And a brave man is one who knows fear and rides out and faces it.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“And I am much attached to my cock, brother. Make sure your sister can put another prince in the cradle, he says baldly. Save my balls for her, Anthony!”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“Nothing in the world matter more than life. You have a long road to walk and a lot of lessons to learn if you don't know that.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“This is a woman whose belly is filled with pride. She has been eating nothing but her own ambition for nearly thirty years.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“He may make me feel like a fool, and like a woman who can do nothing, but what I can do I will. In my jewellery box is a dark locket of black tarnished silver and inside it locked in the darkness, I have his name: Richard Neville and that of George, Duke of Clarence, written in my blood on a piece of paper from the corner of my father's last letter. These are my enemies, I have cursed them. I will see them dead at my feet.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“And what about Edward, is he still alive?'
'I don't know... I pray God he is.'
'But you don't expect him anymore?'
'No... If Edward is alive then I pray God he will find his way to me. And there will always be a candle in the window to light his way home, and my door will never be locked in case one day it is his hand on the latch.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“I am a woman who makes things happen, and I am not defeated yet. I am not defeated by a boy with a newly won crown, and no man will ever walk away from me certain that he won't walk back.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“I won't forgive this wrong done to me and my house, whoever it was that killed my boys, I shall put a curse on their house that they will have no first born son to inherit. Whoever took my son will lose his son. He will spend his life longing for an heir. He will bury his first born and long for him, for I cannot even bury mine.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“Dear god, I am only twenty seven, my cause is defeated, my husband is dead. am I to be one of the poor widows who will spend the rest of their days at someone else`s fireside trying to be a good guest? shall I never be kissed again? shall I never feel joy? not ever again?”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“I do think your brother grows more peculiar every day,' I complain to Edward when he comes to my rooms in Whitehall Palace to escort me to dinner.
'Which one?' he asks lazily. 'For you know I can do nothing right in the eyes of either. You would think they would be glad to have a York on the throne and peace in Christendom, and one of the finest Christmas feasts we have ever arranged; but no: Richard is leaving court to go back north as soon as the feast is over, to demonstrate his outrage that we are not slogging away in a battle with the French, and George is simply bad tempered.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“With this contradictory parentage of mine: solid English earth and French water goddess, one could expect anything from me. An enchantress or an ordinary girl. There are some who will say I am both.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“You're not cursed daughter, you are the finest and rarest of all my children, the most beautiful, the most beloved. You know that. What curse could stick to you?' The gaze she turns on me is darkened with horror as if she has seen her own death.
'You will never surrender, you will never let us be. Your ambition will be the death of my brothers, and when they are dead you will put me on the throne. You would rather have the throne than your sons.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“They arouse in themselves a wild vicious hunger more like animals than men. I did not know that war was like this.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“In the darkness of the forest he saw her, and whispered her name, Melusina, and at that summoning she rose out of the water and he saw that she was a woman of cool and complete beauty to the waist, and below that she was scaled, like a fish. She promised him that she would come to him and be his wife, she promised him that she would make him as happy as a mortal woman can, she promised him that she would curb her wild side, her tidal nature, that she would be an ordinary wife to him, a wife that he could be proud of; if he in return would let her have a time when she could be herself again, when she could return to her element of water, when she could wash away the drudgery of a woman’s lot and be, for just a little while, a water goddess once more. She knew that being a mortal woman is hard on the heart, hard on the feet. She knew that she would need to be alone in the water, under the water, the ripples reflected on her scaly tail now and then. He promised her that he would give her everything, everything she wanted, as men in love always do. And she trusted him despite herself, as women in love always do.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
“There was a magic: and the name of it was love.”
― Philippa Gregory, quote from The White Queen
Philippa Gregory
Born place: in Kenya
See more on GoodReads
“I haven’t hoovered, Meryl,” I said as Wilfred started to turbo crawl and disappeared round the back of the sofa. “It’s okay,” she said. “I want him to build up his resistance and be exposed to lots of germs. That’s one of the reasons we popped over.” Rosencrantz and I looked at each other.”
― Robert Bryndza, quote from Coco Pinchard's Big Fat Tipsy Wedding
“But do you know," said Andy, "how beautiful and delicate a man's heart is when he is happy for the first time? It is like the thin ice that has imprisoned those beautiful young plants that are released when the ice thaws.”
― Jane Bowles, quote from Two Serious Ladies
“If there's one area of me that the devil's got a hold of, it's my tongue.”
― Stefne Miller, quote from Collision
“since throughout the years 1945-49 a consistent majority of Germans believed that ‘Nazism was a good idea, badly applied’.”
― Tony Judt, quote from Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
“Everything Man sees he takes for a toy.
Thus is he always, forever a boy.”
― Jessie Burton, quote from The Miniaturist
The God-Stone War
A Moment
Seducing Destiny
The House of God
If I Have a Wicked S...
Ape and EssenceBookQuoters 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.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
