"Imagination only comes when you privilege the subconscious, when you make delay and procrastination work for you."

"Evidence is always partial. Facts are not truth, though they are part of it – information is not knowledge. And histo…"

"He will remember his first sight of the open sea: a gray wrinkled vastness, like the residue of a dream."

"“So now, tell me how was Yorkshire.’” “Filthy.” He sits down. ‘Weather. People. Manners. Morals.”"

"“He is a good boy, Gregory. Not the most forward, but I can understand that. We’ll make him useful yet.” “You don’t i…"

"He never sees More—a star in another firmament, who acknowledges him with a grim nod—without wanting to ask him, what…"

"For what’s the point of breeding children, if each generation does not improve on what went before?"

"“The multitude,” Cavendish says, “is always desirous of a change. They never see a great man set up but they must pul…"

"“His reliquary!” George is upset, astonished. “To part with it like this! It is a piece of the true Cross!” “We’ll ge…"

"It may be that the whole phenomenon of monarchy is irrational, but that doesn't mean that when we look at it we shoul…"