And – I think you know, don’t you? – that I love you, Anne.’ I feel as if I have been living in a loveless world for too long. The last tender face I saw was my father’s when he sailed for England. ‘You do? Truly?’ ‘I do.’ He rises to his feet and pulls me up to stand beside him. My chin comes to his shoulder, we are both dainty, long-limbed, coltish: well-matched. I turn my face into his jacket. ‘Will you marry me?’ he whispers. ‘Yes,’ I say.

I was born to be your rival,' she [Anne] said simply. 'And you mine. We're sisters, aren't we?

I have given my word that only death will take me from you.

Just because one man calls him Allah and another calls him God is no reason for believers to be enemies.

When a man wants a mystery, it is generally better to leave him mystified. Nobody loves a clever woman.

Tell my daughter Elizabeth -- no! Tell all my daughters, everywhere, in all the ages yet to come. Tell them how I died, and why. And tell them to remember this: the future is unwritten. Know your rights.

... all that that I learn just teaches me that I know nothing.