# Quote — Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

> 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.

- Author: [Hilary Mantel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel.md)
- Book: [Wolf Hall](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall.md)
- Page: 331
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hilary_Mantel#Wolf_Hall_(2009)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/but-it-is-no-use

## More from this book

> 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)