He thinks, I remembered you, Thomas More, but you didn't remember me. You never even saw me coming.

[H]ope takes you by the throat like a stranger, it makes your heart leap.

[Margaret Thatcher] said there was no thing such as society. This is what I find so interesting psychologically. Where did she come from? She had no mother. Her father came from a very identifiable background: religious, highly conformist.

Rafe asks him, could the king's freedom be obtained, sir, with more economy of means? Less bloodshed? Look, he says: once you have exhausted the process of negotiation and compromise, one you have fixed on the destruction of an enemy, that destruction must be swift and it must be perfect. Before you even glance in his direction, you should have his name on a warrant, the ports blocked, his wife and friends bought, his heir under your protection, his money in your strong room and his dog running to your whistle. Before he wakes in the morning, you should have the axe in your hand.

I am sure that all politicians seek the home connection with the voter. But [Margaret Thatcher] carried it to extremes.

Insight cannot be taken back. You cannot return to the moment you were in before.

There is so much else in the world that is more interesting [ than monarchy].