“You are where you are right now because of the actions you've taken, or maybe, the inaction you've taken.”
Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free
“The Tudors hated to be wrong, and therefore never were.”
Source: His Last Letter: Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester
“My mother had a dog once. She used to make it jump through a burning hoop to prove its devotion to her, until she found my father did it better. He jumped through that hoop for over six years. When he finally got tired of performing for her amusement he killed her. And that's what makes men such interesting pets, Markham - you never know when they're going to turn and bite.”
Source: Legacy
“Proud Prelate, you know what you were before I made you what you are. If you do not immediately comply with my request I will unfrock you by God"!”
“The Queen coined new money specifically for the Company {East India}. Minted at the Tower of London and bearing her arms on one side and a portcullis on the other, it soon became know as the portcullis money. She also granted the merchants a new flag which, with its blue field and background of thirteen red and white stripes, prefigured the one adopted by the Thirteen Colonies of America some 175 years later.”
Source: Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“Majesty, there is less danger in fearing too much than too little.”
Source: His Last Letter: Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester
“Sovereigns did not have the luxury of second-guessing or all future commands could be questioned. That could never be. God did not allow his anointed to be wrong.”
Source: His Last Letter: Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester
“Like her father, Bess never forgot a hurt or a service.”
Source: His Last Letter: Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester
“Tame him? You can't tame a Tower rat--they're flea-bitten and vicious."
"So are most men!" The girl smiled and stretched her cramped limbs. "Shall I tame one of them instead? They too make diverting pets, you know."
Markham laughed nervously. "Wouldn't you rather have a dog, madam?"
"Ah no--too loyal! They present no challenge." Behind the girl's steady eyes a shadow stirred. "My mother had a dog once. She used to make it jump through a burning hoop to prove its devotion to her, until she found my father did it better. He jumped through that hoop for over six years. When he finally got tired of performing for her amusement he killed her. And that's what makes men such interesting pets, Markham--you never know when they're going to turn and bite.”
“It was always too late to retract, to try and retrieve what one had done.”
Source: Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain