C.J. Sansom Quotes & Sayings

If a ruler who wants to act honourably is surrounded by unscrupulous men, his downfall is inevitable. — C.J. Sansom

I suppose we were drawn to each other because neither of us quite fitted in. — C.J. Sansom

Like all lawyers, I was delighted by gratitude. It happened so rarely. — C.J. Sansom

I had made the suggestion to her more than once before; but it was an odd fact that the most difficult and hostile clients were often the most reluctant to leave, as though they wanted to stay and plague you out of spite. — C.J. Sansom

Six wives the King's had now.' Barak's words dragged me from my reverie. 'We can't even get one between us. — C.J. Sansom

Conscience,' Hobbey said with infinite sadness. 'I had one once. Ambition killed it. — C.J. Sansom

Dominion is a spy novel, a love story, and also I hope gives some sense of the difficulties faced by dissidents under any totalitarian regime: the threat of imprisonment, torture and death; the threat to one's family, the terror of being alone in a hostile world. — C.J. Sansom

Whenever a party tells you national identity matters more than anything else in politics, that nationalism can sort out all the other problems, then watch out, because you're on a road that can end with fascism. — C.J. Sansom

If I knocked and waited at every door, who knows what I might miss? — C.J. Sansom

Many [Tudor-era religious radicals] believed then, exactly as Christian fundamentalists do today, that they lived in the 'last days' before Armageddon and, again just as now, saw signs all around in the world that they took as certain proof that the Apocalypse was imminent. Again like fundamentalists today, they looked on the prospect of the violent destruction of mankind without turning a hair. The remarkable similarity between the first Tudor Puritans and the fanatics among today's Christian fundamentalists extends to their selective reading of the Bible, their emphasis on the Book of Revelation, their certainty of their rightness, even to their phraseology. Where the Book of Revelation is concerned, I share the view of Guy, that the early church fathers released something very dangerous on the world when, after much deliberation, they decided to include it in the Christian canon.
[From the author's concluding Historical Note] — C.J. Sansom

But if we never acted except when we were certain our motives were pure, we would never act at all. — C.J. Sansom

Have you ever thought what a God would be like who actually ordained and executed the cruelty that is in [the biblical Book of Revelation]? A holocaust of mankind. Yet so many of these Bible-men accept the idea without a second thought. — C.J. Sansom

You should not insult yourself so, sir. Is there not enough suffering in the world? — C.J. Sansom

We of alien looks or words must stick together. — C.J. Sansom

Funny, when i was a little boy I wanted to be good. But I could never seem to manage it somehow. And if you're not good, the good people will throw you to the wolves. So you might as well just be bad — C.J. Sansom

Man is an angry, savage being. Sometimes faith becomes an excuse for battle. It is no real faith then. In justifying their positions in the name of God, men silence God. — C.J. Sansom

Truly, as the ancients taught us, there is nothing under the moon, however fine, that is not subject to corruption. — C.J. Sansom

Around thrones the thunder rolls. — C.J. Sansom

In worshipping their nationhood men worship themselves and scorn others, and that is no healthy thing. — C.J. Sansom

You untangle a knot with slow teasing, not sharp pulling, and believe me we have here a knot such as I have never seen. But I will unpick it. I will. — C.J. Sansom

But since printing came in no one wants illustrated works, they are happy with these cheap books with their ugly, square letters all squashed together. — C.J. Sansom

The lives God gives to us, the awful things we can't escape from. Sometimes I think that sort of God would enjoy making hell for us after we die. — C.J. Sansom

The echoes of childhood torments have great power, even when not brought to mind in such an inexplicable and horrifying way. — C.J. Sansom

How men fear the chaos of the world, I thought, and the yawning eternity hereafter. So we build patterns to explain its terrible mysteries and reassure ourselves we are safe in this world and beyond. — C.J. Sansom

It seems a universal rule in this world that people will always look for victims and scapegoats, does it not? Especially at times of difficulty and tension. — C.J. Sansom