Margaret George Quotes

• The strong look for more strength, the weak for excuses.

  Margaret George

  Strong, Looks, Excuse

  Margaret George (2011). “The Memoirs of Cleopatra”, p.198, Pan Macmillan

  45 Copy quote

• One always imagines that the days that change one’s life must be marked with something extraordinary in nature—storms and lightning, darkness at noon, and so on. In truth they are indistinguishable from any other, which is one reason we feel mocked, as if the world is telling us we are inconsequential.

  Margaret George

  Life, Darkness, Storm

  Margaret George (2011). “Elizabeth I: The Novel”, p.452, Penguin

  15 Copy quote

• I had a desire to see something besides my own shores, if only to be content to return to them someday. If I wish to live in my native land and love her, it should not be out of ignorance.

  Margaret George

  Travel, Ignorance, Land

  Margaret George (2011). “Mary Queen Of Scotland And The Isles”, p.52, Pan Macmillan

  35 Copy quote

• The cure for a broken heart is simple, my lady. A hot bath and a good night's sleep.

  Margaret George

  Broken Heart, Good Night, Sleep

  7 Copy quote

• It is only when our fate hangs in the balance, when our very life depends on something, that we see whether or not we trust that the rope to which we are clinging will support us. If we do not, then we let of of the ledge and swing on it with our full weight.

  Margaret George

  Fate, Swings, Support

  Margaret George (2011). “The Memoirs of Cleopatra”, p.102, Pan Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

• Kindness is stronger than iron bars.

  Margaret George

  Kindness, Iron, Stronger

  16 Copy quote

• Oh, he was just angry, we tell ourselves when someone blurts out something he later apologizes for. But a word, once spoken, lingers forever; to keep peace we pretend to forget, but we never do. Strange that a spoken word can have such lasting power when words carved on stone monuments vanish in spite of all our efforts to preserve them. What we would lose persists, lodged in our minds, and what we would keep is lost to water, moths, moss.

  Margaret George

  Water, Forever, Effort

  Margaret George (2011). “The Memoirs of Cleopatra”, p.934, Pan Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

• Things do not happen, we must make them happen

  Margaret George

  Happens

  Margaret George (2011). “The Memoirs of Cleopatra”, p.726, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Thus we use our supposed "knowledge" of others to speak on their behalf, and condemn them for their words we ourselves put in their silent mouths.

  Margaret George

  Use, Mouths, Speak

  Margaret George (2011). “The Autobiography Of Henry VIII”, p.146, Pan Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

• The most wicked criminals have God on their lips at all times, for God is the only one who can stomach them.

  Margaret George

  Wicked, Criminals, Lips

  Margaret George (2010). “Mary Queen of Scotland & The Isles: A Novel”, p.832, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Boredom is that awful state of inaction when the very medicine ― that is, activity ― which could solve it, is seen as odious. Archery? It is too cold, and besides, the butts need re-covering; the rats have been at the straw. Music? To hear it is tedious; to compose it, too taxing. And so on. Of all the afflictions, boredom is ultimately the most unmanning. Eventually, it transforms you into a great nothing who does nothing ― a cousin to sloth and a brother to melancholy.

  Margaret George

  Cousin, Brother, Archery

  4 Copy quote

• I was ever the realist, sometimes to my sorrow. But seldom to my regret.

  Margaret George

  Regret, Sorrow, Sometimes

  Margaret George (2012). “Elizabeth I”, p.223, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Hope is a straw hat hanging beside a window covered with frost.

  Margaret George

  Frost, Hats, Window

  Margaret George (2011). “Mary Queen Of Scotland And The Isles”, p.743, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Perhaps life is like an hour glass, with dear ones the sand that slips from the upper glass--the earth--into the second--eternity.

  Margaret George

  Glasses, Dear Ones, Life Is Like

  Margaret George (2012). “Elizabeth I”, p.370, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• To love someone is to catch your breath whenever he walks in the room.

  Margaret George

  Rooms, Walks, Love Someone

  4 Copy quote

• In my experience, there are two things that no one will admit to: having no sense of humor and being susceptible to flattery.

  Margaret George

  Two, Sense Of Humor, Flattery

  4 Copy quote

• So I learned two things that night, and the next day, from him: the perfection of a moment, and the fleeting nature of it.

  Margaret George

  Relationship, Loss, Night

  Margaret George (2011). “The Memoirs of Cleopatra”, p.116, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• When he comes into a room, you give a little gasp, deep inside, far inside,' someone once said when trying to describe what it meant to love.

  Margaret George

  Giving, Trying, Littles

  Margaret George (2011). “Helen of Troy: A Novel”, p.597, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• It is almost impossible to describe happiness, because at the time it feels entirely natural, as if all the rest of your life has been the aberration; only in retrospect does it swim into focus as the rare and precious thing it is. When it is present, it seems to be eternal, abiding forever, and there is no need to examine it or clutch it. Later, when it has evaporated, you stare in dismay at your empty palm, where only a little of the perfume lingers to prove that once it was there, and now is flown.

  Margaret George

  Focus, Forever, Swim

  Margaret George (2011). “The Memoirs of Cleopatra”, p.683, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Mary awoke from her nightmare with a pounding heart, convinced that she had only imagined Elizabeth's cruel plot. A full moon was shining into her chamber, illuminating everything around her in silvery light. That was when she noticed for the first time that there were bars on her window.

  Margaret George

  Heart, Moon, Light

  4 Copy quote

• Now I felt the long-forgotten urgency of lovemaking, when it seems one's human selves leave, to be replaced by hungry beasts bolting their food. Gone are the civilized beings who talk of manners and journeys and letters; in their places are two bodies straining to give birth to a burst of inhuman pleasure followed by a great, floating nothingness. An explosion of life followed by death - in this we live, and in this we foreshadow our own sweet deaths.

  Margaret George

  Sweet, Journey, Self

  Margaret George (2011). “The Memoirs of Cleopatra”, p.262, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Lying in bed, half-covered by the blankets, I would drowsily ask why he had come to my door that night long ago. It had become a ritual for us, as it does for all lovers: where, when, why? remember...I understand even old people rehearse their private religion of how they first loved, most guarded of secrets. And he would answer, sleep blurring his words, "Because I had to." The question and the answer were always the same. Why? Because I had to.

  Margaret George

  Lying, Sleep, Night

  Margaret George (2010). “The Memoirs of Cleopatra: A Novel”, p.751, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Boredom is that awful state of inaction when the very medicine - that is, activity - which could solve it, is seen as odious.

  Margaret George

  Archery, Medicine, Boredom

  7 Copy quote

• We are always tortured by our memory of the last time we were with anyone, what we said, what we did not say.

  Margaret George

  Memories, Hate, Lasts

  Margaret George (2011). “Helen of Troy: A Novel”, p.708, Pan Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

• Yet we always envy others, comparing our shadows to their sunlit sides.

  Margaret George

  Envy, Shadow, Sides

  Margaret George (2011). “The Autobiography Of Henry VIII”, p.212, Pan Macmillan

  6 Copy quote

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