"Blackthorne was suddenly awake. For a moment he thought he was dreaming because he was ashore and the room unbelievab…"

"All his life he had heard legends told among pilots and sailormen about the incredible riches of Portugal's secret em…"

"To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down …"

"There are no 'mitigating circumstances' when it comes to rebellion against a sovereign lord."

"First she studied her husband's flower arrangement. He had chosen the blossom of a single white wild rose and put a s…"

"Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life."

"What are clouds, But an excuse for the sky? What is life, But an escape from death?"

"Black Robe is an historical novel, in a way, but it doesn't give you the heavy padding that historical novels do. The…"

"I am fully sensible that an historical romance, founded on the House of Saxe Coburg, might be much more to the purpos…"

"All the time I was at work on the Two Cities, I read no books but such as had the air of time in them."