Quotes from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“I inhale hope with every breath I take.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“…she remembered watching a summer sunset from this very spot. Not so long ago; just a lifetime.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“For every wound, the ointment of time.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“…a cynic who was still saddened whenever his jaundiced view of mankind was confirmed...”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“It was just like him, she thought; with him, a happy ending was always a foregone conclusion. But such was the power of his faith that when she was with him; she found herself believing in happy endings, too.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“Why is it honesty when a man speaks his mind and madness when a woman does?”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“...Life without sinning was like food without salt, pure but tasteless.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“In time of war, the Devil makes more room in Hell.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“It was a basic tenet of faith with men of Ranulf’s class that a knight, trained in the ways of war since boyhood, could easily vanquish lesser foes, as much a belief in the superiority of blood and breeding as in the benefits of battle lore and killing competence. Ranulf had accepted this comforting conviction, too, but no one seemed to have told his assailants that they were inferior adversaries.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“When people want to insult a man, they cast slurs upon his courage. But the worst they can say about a woman is to impugn her chastity.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“You might as well face it. You're not going to be able to fight for the crown. You'll just have to grit your teeth and let us hand it over to you at the bargaining table.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“I know you do not care much for such revelries, but trust me—this one you will enjoy, Harry. You and I will sit at the high table, eating porpoise and swan, whilst we watch my male kinfolk eating humble pie!”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“More than men had died at Lincoln. It seemed to Stephen that reality was a casualty, too, for nothing made sense anymore. What was he doing here in the solar of Lincoln Castle, bleeding all over the Earl of Chester’s wife?”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“He'd never seen one so vibrant, though, or so vividly compelling... those glowing green eyes sparkling with sunlight and curiosity and silent laughter, and when she glanced in Henry's direction, she held his gaze, a look that was both challenging and enigmatic... He was utterly certain that this was Eleanor of Aquitaine, and no less sure that the French King must be one of God's greatest fools.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“You asked what the Londoners wanted of you, and he…he said ‘ballocks.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“They had gathered at Eastcheap to wait. At this time of day, the marketplace ought to have been thronged with people looking for bargains, moving from stall to stall, examining the fresh fish, choosing the plumpest hens, buying candles and pepper and needles. The stalls were open, but the fishmongers and cordwainers and butchers were doing no business, despite the growing crowd. The sun was hot, flies were thick, and the odors pungent; no one complained, though. They talked and gossiped among themselves, strangers soon becoming friends, for the normally fractious and outspoken Londoners had forgotten their differences, at least for a day, united in a common purpose and determined to revel in their triumph, for they were pragmatic enough to understand this might be their only one. Now they joked and swapped rumors and waited with uncommon patience, and at last they heard a cry, swiftly picked up and echoed across the marketplace: “She is coming!”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“In the past few months, life had lost its sweetness and he’d lost his way. But no longer. Death was once again the enemy, his indifference and apathy drowned in a Cheshire pond.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“She wanted to order him clapped in irons, as he so deserved. But she was stopped by what she saw in the faces of the watching men: disapproval, instinctive and involuntary, but disapproval, nonetheless. They were not comfortable when power was wielded by a woman, not at a man’s expense, a man who had just acquitted himself so spectacularly at Lincoln, winning their reluctant respect in a way she knew she never could.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“Now our poor Gib never had a sense of humor to lose...”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

“Yesterday I heard some of the castle servants talking about a funeral for one of the stable lads. He went skating last week on the pond in the village, but the ice was not thick enough and he drowned. I like to skate on the ice,too, Papa, have my own pair of bone skates. I could drown crossing the Channel as Uncle Robert fears... or I could drown back in Angers, if I was unlucky like that stable lad." Geoffrey's mouth twitched. "God help me," he said, "I've sired a lawyer!”
― Sharon Kay Penman, quote from When Christ and His Saints Slept

About the author

Popular quotes

“Mais les signes de ce qui m'attendait réellement, je les ai tous négligés. Je travaille mon diplôme sur le surréalisme à la bibliothèque de Rouen, je sors, je traverse le square Verdrel, il fait doux, les cygnes du bassin ont reparu, et d'un seul coup j'ai conscience que je suis en train de vivre peut-être mes dernières semaines de fille seule, libre d'aller où je veux, de ne pas manger ce midi, de travailler dans ma chambre sans être dérangée. Je vais perdre définitivement la solitude. Peut-on s'isoler facilement dans un petit meublé, à deux. Et il voudra manger ses deux repas par jour. Toutes sortes d'images me traversent. Une vie pas drôle finalement. Mais je refoule, j'ai honte, ce sont des idées de fille unique, égocentrique, soucieuse de sa petite personne, mal élevée au fond. Un jour, il a du travail, il est fatigué, si on mangeait dans la chambre au lieu d'aller au restau. Six heures du soir cours Victor-Hugo, des femmes se précipitent aux Docks, en face du Montaigne, prennent ci et ça sans hésitation, comme si elles avaient dans la tête toute la programmation du repas de ce soir, de demain peut-être, pour quatre personnes ou plus aux goûts différents. Comment font-elles ? [...] Je n'y arriverai jamais. Je n'en veux pas de cette vie rythmée par les achats, la cuisine. Pourquoi n'est-il pas venu avec moi au supermarché. J'ai fini par acheter des quiches lorraines, du fromage, des poires. Il était en train d'écouter de la musique. Il a tout déballé avec un plaisir de gamin. Les poires étaient blettes au coeur, "tu t'es fait entuber". Je le hais. Je ne me marierai pas. Le lendemain, nous sommes retournés au restau universitaire, j'ai oublié. Toutes les craintes, les pressentiments, je les ai étouffés. Sublimés. D'accord, quand on vivra ensemble, je n'aurai plus autant de liberté, de loisirs, il y aura des courses, de la cuisine, du ménage, un peu. Et alors, tu renâcles petit cheval tu n'es pas courageuse, des tas de filles réussissent à tout "concilier", sourire aux lèvres, n'en font pas un drame comme toi. Au contraire, elles existent vraiment. Je me persuade qu'en me mariant je serai libérée de ce moi qui tourne en rond, se pose des questions, un moi inutile. Que j'atteindrai l'équilibre. L'homme, l'épaule solide, anti-métaphysique, dissipateur d'idées tourmentantes, qu'elle se marie donc ça la calmera, tes boutons même disparaîtront, je ris forcément, obscurément j'y crois. Mariage, "accomplissement", je marche. Quelquefois je songe qu'il est égoïste et qu'il ne s'intéresse guère à ce que je fais, moi je lis ses livres de sociologie, jamais il n'ouvre les miens, Breton ou Aragon. Alors la sagesse des femmes vient à mon secours : "Tous les hommes sont égoïstes." Mais aussi les principes moraux : "Accepter l'autre dans son altérité", tous les langages peuvent se rejoindre quand on veut.”
― Annie Ernaux, quote from A Frozen Woman

“You won't know how lucky you are to be able to spend your life with the other half of your soul until you have to spend your life without them.”
― Anna Todd, quote from After Ever Happy

“Gözümü dikip baktım suratına. Suratı sıska ve dingindi; gri gözleri de donuk ve sakin. Hiçbir heyecan izi seçilmiyordu. Tavrında en ufak bir tedirginlik, öfke, sinir ya da küstahlık olsa, ya da şöyle söyleyeyim, olağan bir insanî ifade olsa, hiç durmaz yaka paça kovardım ofisimden. Ama bu durumda bunu yapmak, Paris işi alçıdan Cicero büstümü kapı dışarı etmek gibi bir şey olacaktı.”
― Herman Melville, quote from Bartleby el escribiente

“Writer's Resolution
Enough's Enough! No more shall I
Pursue the Muse and scorch the pie
Or dream of Authoring a book
When I (unhappy soul) must cook;
Or burn the steak while I wool-gather,
And stir my spouse into a lather
Invoking words like "Darn!" and such
And others that are worse (Oh, much!)
Concerning culinary knack
Which I (HE says) completely lack.
I'll keep my mind upon my work;
I'll learn each boresome cooking quirk;
This day shall mark a new leaf's turning...
That smell! Oh Hell! The beans are burning!”
― quote from The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less

“Deceptions are more frequent than changes”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Slottet

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