You know I'm not a man with whom you can have inconsequential conversations. I cannot split myself into two, one your friend and the other the king's servant.

The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, if you can only see it.

Those who are made can be unmade.

...this is what death does to you, it takes and takes, so that all that is left of your memories is a faint tracing of spilled ash.

He says in his defence he never meddled with married women, only with virgins.

When a man admits guilt we have to believe him. We cannot set ourselves to proving to him that he is wrong. Otherwise the law courts would never function.

The lawyer's world is entire unto itself, the human pared away.

How many men can say, as I must, 'I am a man whose only friend is the King of England'? I have everything, you would think. And yet take Henry away, and I have nothing.

... every monarch needs a blow on the head, from time to time.

If Mary's blood is Spanish, at least it is royal. And at least she can walk straight and has control of her bowels.

Full bellies breed gentle manners. The pinch of famine makes monsters.

I was nearly unnerved at my proximity to a nameless thing at the bottom of a pit.

If you die you're completely happy and your soul somewhere lives on. I'm not afraid of dying. Total peace after death, becoming someone else is the best hope I've got.

God does not require us to achieve any of the good tasks that humanity must pursue. What God requires of us is that we not stop trying.

Sometimes, when you want to make a difference in a person's life, stay out of it.

There can be associations - enlightened businesses, for example - that do not work on the basis of us against them or wanting profit as the main motivating force behind what they do.

In solitude we become aware that our worth is not the same as our usefulness.

you shall tie the marriage knot with the ropemaker's daughter and the cawing of the crows will be your wedding song.

People in general do not willingly read if they have anything else to amuse them.

i can nourish myself on nothing but truth