“If the earth could be truly shared, and people could come together to work it, there would be an end to all hunger and want, all greed and envy. The way to realize this vision was to act: words were 'nothing at all, and must die, for action is the life of all',”
Source: The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown
“Church attendance was still compulsory, as was adherence to a long list of beliefs, including the Trinity, the resurrection of Christ, the truth of the Bible and the resurrection of the dead, on pain of imprisonment.”
“For decades, indeed centuries, the English legal system had been decried for its unfairness. The lists of its short-comings varied, but most included the sheer time it took to resolve any case and the eye-watering cost in lawyers' fees of legal action. This indefinite imprisonment of debtors and the power of the central courts in London were also causes for repeated complaint, as was the fact that the law was a closed shop, conducted in Latin and French, to the absolute exclusion of non-professionals.”
Source: The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown
“The light from her windows passed across her chamber in diminishing arcs as the days shortened, the sounds were the cries of seagulls following the fishing fleet into the harbour and the rush of the waves on the shingle shore.”
Source: The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown
“Like many a resistance fighter she exploited her sex and her social situation and had few qualms about using deception and violence to advance her cause.”
Source: The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown
“His argument was disarmingly simple: the people of England should obey those in authority whoever they were, for the sake of peace and order.”
Source: The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown
“It was not to be a blunt instrument of instruction, but something subtler. Humour and satire were to be its methos. 'It must be written in a jocular way,' he explained; to sway the opinions of the 'multitude' required not disputation, but amusement and 'phantasie' that would delight and charm.”
Source: The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown
“Hope carries its own faith.”
“Even his enemies conceded he was tremendous company, and those who became fond of him liked him though they knew him to be unreliable and unpredictable... He was no the first nor the last person to develop an enduring friendship with those who ought to have despised him, in large part because he made them laugh.”
Source: The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown
“There appeared before her eyes the figure of Oliver Cromwell, in the guise of the Old Testament military leader Gideon, going into the Commons Chamber and demanding the resignation of the Speaker and the end of the assembly: 'I saw suddenly a departure of them, though they were very loath thereunto.' When, four days later, news reached the Hillingdon vicarage that exactly these events had just occurred in London, Anna's friends were thunderstruck. She was not mad. God himself was speaking through her.”
Source: The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown