Philippa Gregory famous quotes

You have to choose the best, every day, without compromise...guided by your own virtue and highest ambition
-- Philippa Gregory

#Ambition #Compromise #Virtue

When a woman thinks her husband is a fool, her marriage is over. They may part in one year or ten; they may live together until death. But if she thinks he is a fool, she will not love him again.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Husband #Thinking #Years

I shall be dark and French and fashionable and difficult. And you shall be sweet and open and English and fair. What a pair we shall be! What man can resist us?
-- Philippa Gregory

#Sweet #Dark #Men

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

#Giving #Want #Tomorrow

Every woman has to have something which singles her out, which catches the eyes, which makes her the center of attention. I am going to be french.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Eye #Center Of Attention #Attention

You can smile when your heart is breaking because you're a woman.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Heart

Just because one man calls him Allah and another calls him God is no reason for believers to be enemies.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Men #Enemy #Reason

Words have weight, something once said cannot be unsaid. Meaning is like a stone dropped into a pool; the ripples will spread and you cannot know what back they wash against.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Stones #Weight #Pool

I love reading and I love thinking - the reason that I love my books so much is that in order to write them I have to read and to think for years at a time about the same period of time.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Book #Reading #Writing

Being a stepmother has worked out very well for me. I love my stepchildren very much.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Stepmothers #Stepchildren #Stepchild

I love going to London for a couple of days but I need to be in the country. I like the silence, the smell and the seasonal changes, especially in spring and summer. I really feel that I belong there.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Summer #Country #Couple

I am in the interesting position of being sometimes skimmed by the critics and called literature and sometimes called historical fiction.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Interesting #Historical #Fiction

When they launch snakes you'll have your namesake.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Snakes #Namesake

Anyone can attract a man. The trick is to keep him.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Men #Tricks

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

#Brother #Uncles #Father

I have given my word that only death will take me from you.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Given

But I don't forget and I don't forgive.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Forgiving #Forget

They say that at the mountain pass he looked back at his kingdom, his beautiful kingdom, and wept, and his mother told him to weep like a woman for what he could not hold as a man.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Beautiful #Mother #Men

Daniel, I did not knowwhat I wanted when I was agirl. And then I was a fool in every sense of the word. And now that I am a woman grown, I know that I love you and I want this son of yours, and our children who will come. I have seen a woman break her heart for love: my Queen Mary. I have seen another break her soul to avoid it: my Princess Elizabeth. I don't want to be Mary or Elizabeth, I want to be me: Hannah Verde Carpenter." "And we shall live somewhere that we can follow our belifs without danger," he insisted. "Yes," I said, "in the England that Elizabeth will make.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Queens #Children #Princess

I felt as if we were fighting something worse than Anne, some demon that possessed her, that possessed all of us Boleyns: ambition - the devil that had brought us to this little room and brought my sister to this insane distress and us to this savage battle.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Ambition #Fighting #Insane

When it's done, it's done. And no one will know until it's done.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Done

In Spain," indeed! He would have got no closer than the Indies if I had not showed him how to do it. Stupid puppy.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Stupid #Spain #Puppy

But Anne, do you love him?" I asked curiously. The curve of her hood hid all but the corner of her smile. "I am a fool to own it, but I am in a fever for his touch.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Curves #Fever #Fool

He had taken George, my beloved George, from me. And he had taken my other self: Anne.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Taken #Self #Beloved

We might, either of us, be Queen of England and yet we'll always be nothing to our family.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Queens #Might #England

She was like a mother to me...and I betrayed as a daughter will betray her mother and yet, never stop loving her.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Mother #Daughter #Betrayed

the bird sings as if to say that delight is easy, for those who desire it
-- Philippa Gregory

#Bird #Desire #Delight

If there is love enough,then nothing-not nature, not even death itself- can come between two who love each other.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Two #Enough

I wanted the heat and the sweat and the passion of a man that I could love and trust. And I wanted to give myself to him: not for advantage, but for desire.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Passion #Men #Sweat

I have seen sights and travelled in countries you cannot imagine. I have been afraid and I have been in danger, and I have never for one moment thought that I would throw myself at at a man for his help.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Country #Men #Sight

For Harry Potter I have all the time in the world.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Potters #World #Harry Potter

En Ma Fin Est Ma Commencement - In my end is my beginning.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Ends #Fins #Commencement

Good Evening , Sir John. I hope that you will accept a little gift from me.' I should be honored, Your Majesty.' I want to give you a little carved stool from my privy chambers. A pretty little piece from France. I hope you will like it.' I should be grateful.' It is for your daughter. For Jane. To sit on. She seems not to have a seat of her own but she must borrow mine.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Daughter #Grateful #Giving

I believe in me, in my view of the world. I believe in my responsibility for my own destiny, guilt for my own sins, merit for my own good deeds, determination of my own life. I don't believe in miracles, I believe in hard work.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Determination #Believe #Responsibility

Good god what men can do to their brains when their ***** are hard.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Men #Brain #Good God

Wealth means nothing at all if you do not know, to the last penny, what your fortune is. You might as well be poor if you do not know what you have.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Mean #Might #Lasts

...you have to have faith that you are doing God's will. Sometimes you will not understand. Sometimes you will doubt. But if you are doing God's will, you can't be wrong, you can't go wrong.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Doubt #Have Faith #Moved On

The truth is the last thing that matters,' she said. 'And you can believe one thing of the truth and me: I keep it well hidden, inside my heart.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Believe #Heart #Matter

If it means something, take it to heart. If it means nothing, it's nothing. Let it go.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Life #Mean #Heart

He is my brother. She is my sister. Come what will, they are my kin.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Brother #My Brother #My Sister

The world hasn't changed that much; men still rule.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Men #World #Changed

Oh yes. Draw your hem back from my mud, little sister.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Little Sister #Littles #Mud

I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't do anything but think about him. At night I dream of him, all day I wait to see him, and when I do see him my heart turns over and I think I will faint with desire.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Dream #Sleep #Heart

Jane," I said quietly. She opened her eyes, she had been far away in prayer. "Yes, Mary? Forgive me, I was praying." "If you go on flirting with the king with those sickly little smiles, one of us Boleyns is going to scratch your eyes out.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Kings #Prayer #Eye

I would know you anywhere for my true love. Whoever I was and whoever you were, I would know you at once for my true love.
-- Philippa Gregory

#My True Love

Stars in the night,' he said. 'Something something something something, some delight
-- Philippa Gregory

#Stars #Night #Delight

...Your trouble, William, is that you have no ambition. You don't see that there is in life only ever one goal.' 'And what is that?' More', George said simply. 'Just more of anything. More of everything.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Ambition #Goal #Trouble

One’s lover is one’s partner in observing and understanding the world. Marriage is a place where joint narratives are composed. If the lover is a liar then all your joint observations are unreliable. You will have to start all over again.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Liars #Understanding #World

I never thought it would end like this. I never thought he would leave me without saying goodbye.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Goodbye #Saying Goodbye #Ends

I have learned the power of surviving.
-- Philippa Gregory

#I Have Learned #Surviving

I would play ball with Catherine, and hide and seek: Not a very challenging game in an open meadow, but she was still at the age where she believed that if she shut her eyes and buried her head under a shawl then she could not be seen.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Eye #Games #Play

We're going' Anne said firmly. So soon?' Percy pleaded. 'But stars come out at night.' Then they fade at dawn', Anne replied. 'This star needs to veil herself in darkness.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Stars #Night #Darkness

When they see us dance. When they see how you look at me. When they see how I smile at you.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Looks #I Smile #Look At Me

I am too dark in my heart tonight.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Heart #Dark #Tonight

He may well speak French and Latin and half a dozen languages, but since he has nothing to say – what good are they?
-- Philippa Gregory

#Latin #Dozen #May

She is Melusina, the water goddess, and she is found in hidden springs and waterfalls in any forest in Christendom, even in those as far away as Greece. (...) A man may love her if he keeps her secret and lets her alone when she wants to bathe, and she may love him in return until he breaks his word, as men always do, and she sweeps him into the depths with her fishy tail, and turns his faithless blood to water. The tragedy of Melusina, whatever language tells it, whatever tune it sings, is that a man will always promise more than he can do to a woman he cannot understand.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Spring #Men #Blood

A man will always promise to do more than he can do to a woman he cannot understand.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Men #Promise

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

#Men #Giving #Wanted

Plainly, she is quite besotted by him,... a girl, a young girl, and she is falling in love for the first time in her life. ...little Kitty Howard at a loss, stumbling in her speech, blushing like a rose, thinking of someone else and not herself is to see a girl become a woman.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Girl #Falling In Love #Loss

War does not answer war, war does not finish war. The only ending is peace.
-- Philippa Gregory

#War #Answers #Doe

It is not love that matters, Mistress Boy, it is what you choose to do with it. What’d you choose to do with yours?
-- Philippa Gregory

#Boys #Mistress #Matter

You can smile when your heart is breaking because you are a woman, and a courtier, and a Howard. That's three reasons for being the most deceitful creature on God's earth.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Heart #Earth #Three

It is no small thing, this, for a woman: freedom.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Small Things

If it has to be done at all, it must be done with grace.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Grace #Done

Katherine of Aragon was speaking out for the women of the country, for the good wives who should not be put aside just because their husbands had taken a fancy to another, for the women who walked the hard road between kitchen, bedroom, church and childbirth. For the women who deserved more than their husband's whim.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Country #Husband #Taken

Before anything else I was a woman who was capable of passion and who had a great need and a great desire for love.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Passion #Desire #Needs

I was born to be your rival,' she [Anne] said simply. 'And you mine. We're sisters, aren't we?
-- Philippa Gregory

#Rivals #Said #Born

The wheel of fortune [...] tells us that we all only want victory. We all want to triumph. But we all have to learn to endure what comes. We have to learn to treat misfortune and great fortune with indifference. That is wisdom.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Victory #Want #Wheels

Some women attract desire. Others do not.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Desire

True obedience can only happen when you secretly think you know better, and you choose to bow your head. Anything short of that is just agreement, and any ninny-in-waiting can agree.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Thinking #Agreement #Waiting

Yes, Your Grace," I correct her. "I am My Lady, the King's Mother, now, and you shall curtsey to me, as low as to a queen of royal blood. This was my destiny: to put my son on the throne of England, and those who laughed at my visions and doubted my vocation will call me My Lady, the King's Mother, and I shall sign myself Margaret Regina: Margaret R.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Mother #Queens #Kings

She looked at me as if for a moment she would seek someone who would understand the dreadful predicament of a woman, in this world ruled by men.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Men #World #Moments

In a way. Magic is the act of making a wish come about. Like praying, like plotting, like herbs, like exerting your will on the world, making something happen.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Magic #Wish #World

Yes, but either way, shamed or not, I shall be Queen of England, and this is the last time you will sit in my presence.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Queens #Way #Lasts

Tell my daughter Elizabeth -- no! Tell all my daughters, everywhere, in all the ages yet to come. Tell them how I died, and why. And tell them to remember this: the future is unwritten. Know your rights.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Daughter #Rights #Age

To save my son, I would plot with the devil himself.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Son #Devil #Plot

Sometimes you cannot help what you hear, you cannot help what you see.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Helping #Sometimes

I'm utterly indifferent to Kate Middleton's baby.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Baby #Indifferent

I had never seen a woman in such despair before. It was worse than death, it was a constant longing for death and a constant rejection of life. She lived like darkness in her own day.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Rejection #Darkness #Despair

Only fools wait when their enemies are coming, to see if they may prove to be friends.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Waiting #Enemy #Fool

There are many sorts of love. And when you love a man who is less than you dreamed, you have to make allowances for the difference between a real man and a dream. Sometimes you have to forgive him. Perhaps you even have to forgive him often. But forgiveness often comes with love.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Dream #Real #Men

Although some people think I am a romantic novelist I have always thought of myself as a rather gritty radical historian.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Thinking #People #Novelists

But young hearts mend easily, and hearts that own half of England have something better to do than to beat faster for love.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Heart #Half #England

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

#Men #Thinking #Air

When you pray, you know that you want something, that's always the first step. to let yourself know that you want something, that you yearn for it. sometimes that's the hardest thing to do. Because you have to have courage to know what you desire. You have to have courage to acknowledge that you are unhappy without it.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Unhappy #Desire #Want

I put the charm bracelet away in the purse and return it to my jewel case. I don't need a spell to foresee the future; I am going to make it happen.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Jewels #Purses #Return

Take care with your words, Jacquetta, especially in cursing. Only say the things you mean, make sure you lay your curse on the right man. For be very sure that when you put such words out in the world they can overshoot-like an arrow, a curse can go beyond your target and harm another. A wise woman curses very sparingly.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Wise #Mean #Men

Once more, I am watching the most powerful men in the kingdom bring their power to bear on a woman who has done nothing worse than live to the beat of her own heart, see with her own eyes; but this is not their tempo nor their vision and they cannot tolerate any other.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Powerful #Eye #Heart

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,” - Edward IV to Elizabeth Woodville -
-- Philippa Gregory

#Children #Love You #Kissing

... all that that I learn just teaches me that I know nothing.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Teach

When a man wants a mystery, it is generally better to leave him mystified. Nobody loves a clever woman.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Clever #Men #Want

I turn around from the window and for the first time I see him... It is Richard, smiling at my surprise. I run to him, without thinking what I am doing. I run to the first friendly face that I have seen since Christmas, and in a moment I am in his arms and he is holding me tightly and kissing my face, my closed eyes, my smiling mouth, kissing me till I am breathless and have to pull away from him.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Running #Eye #Kissing

And – I think you know, don’t you? – that I love you, Anne.’ I feel as if I have been living in a loveless world for too long. The last tender face I saw was my father’s when he sailed for England. ‘You do? Truly?’ ‘I do.’ He rises to his feet and pulls me up to stand beside him. My chin comes to his shoulder, we are both dainty, long-limbed, coltish: well-matched. I turn my face into his jacket. ‘Will you marry me?’ he whispers. ‘Yes,’ I say.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Father #Love You #Thinking

Fortune's wheel takes you very high and then throws you very low, and there is nothing you can do but face the turn of it with courage.
-- Philippa Gregory

#Faces #Wheels #Lows