The Reckoning Quotes

“I’ll admit that my garden now grows hope in lavish profusion, leaving little room for anything else. I suppose it has squeezed out more practical plants like caution and common sense. Still, though, hope does not flourish in every garden, and I feel thankful it has taken root in mine.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, The Reckoning

“During the day, memories could be held at bay, but at night, dreams became the devil's own accomplices.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, The Reckoning

“What is forgiveness worth without trust?”
― Sharon Kay Penman, The Reckoning

“Tonight," he said, "we shall get quietly and thoroughly drunk...in memory of all that was lost. And on the morrow, I begin the struggle to win it back.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, The Reckoning

“Five years is a long time to grieve," Llewelyn said at last, and Davydd shook his head.
"Grief heals," he said. "Guilt does not.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, The Reckoning

“...what an unfair advantage the dead had over the living, for there could be no rebuttal, no denial, nothing but the accusing silence of the grave.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, The Reckoning

“if a man is a fool to wed for love, he must be utterly daft to wed for lust. No one with sense would expect a candle to burn forever, so why should a flame kindled in bed?”
― Sharon Kay Penman, The Reckoning

“De Mortimer was willing to wager his hopes for salvation that self-interest was the one drink no man refused, but he had never understood why most men must sweeten it so lavishly ere they could swallow it.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, The Reckoning

“Marriage was a Sacrament, yet these festivities more often resembled pagan rites than Christian nuptials.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, The Reckoning

“Do not fret, lad. Priests expect you to keep on sinning, do not care as long as you keep on confessing, too. In fact, I would think they prefer it that way, for if there were no sinners, why would we need them?”
― Sharon Kay Penman, The Reckoning

“We'd become aliens in our own land," he'd warned, "denied our own laws, our own language, even our yesterdays, for a conquered people are not allowed a prideful past. Worst of all, we'd be leaving our children and grandchildren a legacy of misery and loss, a future bereft of hope.”
― Sharon Kay Penman, The Reckoning