# Hilary Mantel

- Quotes: 58
- Author page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel

## Books

- [Wolf Hall](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall.md) — 58 quotes

## Recently added quotes

> One tradesman the same as the next? Not in the real world. Any man with a steady hand and a cleaver can call himself a butcher: but without the smith, where does he get that cleaver? Without the man who works in metal, where are your hammers, your scythes, your sickles, scissors and planes? Your arms and armor, your arrowheads, your pikes and your guns? Where are your ships at sea and their anchors? Where are your grappling hooks, your nails, latches, hinges, pokers and tongs? Where are your spits, kettles, trivets, your harness rings, buckles and bits? Where are your knives?

p. 306 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/one-tradesman-the.md)

> What was England, before Wolsey? A little offshore island, poor and cold.

p. 240 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/what-was-england.md)

> The cardinal used to say, the English will forgive a king anything, until he tries to tax them.

p. 332 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/the-cardinal-used.md)

> Why do I feel I have heard this story before? She has a flock of monks and priests about her, who directed the people’s eyes heavenward while picking their pockets.

p. 353 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/why-do-i-feel.md)

> A lie is no less a lie because it is a thousand years old.

p. 525 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/a-lie-is-no-less.md)

> When have I, when have I ever forced anyone to do anything, he starts to say: but Richard cuts in, “No, you don’t, I agree, it’s just that you are practiced at persuading, and sometimes it’s quite difficult, sir to distinguish being persuaded by you from being knocked down in street and stamped on.”

p. 406 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/when-have-i-when.md)

> The king laughs. “Why would I trust a man with my business, if he could not manage his own?”

p. 377 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/the-king-laughs.md)

> “He is a good boy, Gregory. Not the most forward, but I can understand that. We’ll make him useful yet.”
>
> “You don’t intend him for the church?” Cranmer asks.
>
> “I said,” growls Rowland, “we’ll make him useful.”

p. 401 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/he-is-a-good.md)

> Lent saps the spirits, as of course it is designed to do.

p. 282 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/lent-saps-the.md)

> “Tell me, why do you think I do this?” The king sounds curious. “Out of lust? Is that what you think?”
>
> Kill a cardinal? Divide your country? Split the church? “It seems extravagant,” Chapuys murmurs.

p. 410 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/tell-me-why.md)

> But it is no use to justify yourself. It is no good to explain. It is weak to be anecdotal. It is wise to conceal the past even if there is nothing to conceal. A man’s power is in the half-light, in the half-seen movements of his hand and the unguessed-at expression of his face. It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.

p. 331 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/but-it-is-no-use.md)

> Wolsey always said that the making of a treaty is the treaty. It doesn’t matter what the terms are, just that there are terms. It’s the goodwill that matters. When that runs out, the treaty is broken, whatever the terms say.

p. 361 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/wolsey-always-said.md)