A Column of Fire Quotes

“When a man is certain that he knows God’s will, and is resolved to do it regardless of the cost, he is the most dangerous person in the world.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“After all, if you can't kill a man in front of God's face you probably shouldn't kill him at all.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“Trials rarely found men not guilty. The general view was that if a man were innocent he would not have got into trouble in the first place.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“Changing your beliefs with every change of monarch was called “policy,” and people who did it were “politicians.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“there are no saints in politics, but imperfect people can make the world a better place.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“I will marry a man who is clever and thoughtful and who wants his wife to be more than just the most senior of his servants.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“Nothing is permanent, except change.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“Su mente era como una casa que había ido amueblando durante toda su vida. Las mesas y las camas eran las canciones que sabía cantar, las obras que había visto, las catedrales que había admirado y los libros que había leído en inglés, francés y latín.”
― Ken Follett, Una columna de fuego

“I may yet go through anguish in hell for my sin. But if I had to live that time again I would do the same, to end Margery’s ordeal. I preferred to suffer myself than to know that her agony continued. Her well-being was more important to me than my own. I have learned, during the course of a long life, that that is the meaning of love.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“Some men craved deference; others craved wine, or the bodies of beautiful women, or the monastic life of order and obedience. What did Ned crave? The answer came into his mind with a speed and effortlessness that took him by surprise: justice.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“You said that there are no saints in politics, but imperfect people can make the world a better place.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“My father taught us to learn as much as possible of any tongue we came across. He says it’s better than money in the bank.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“The simple idea that people should be allowed to worship as they wished caused more suffering than the ten plagues of Egypt.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“I learned the meaning of the word bittersweet, the acid taste of loss and the honey of hope in one bright fruit.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“hombre que se jacta de conocer la voluntad de Dios y está dispuesto a cumplirla a toda costa es el hombre más peligroso del mundo».”
― Ken Follett, Una columna de fuego

“Justice was done. Swithin was a murderer and a rapist who deserved to die. But I found that my conscience was not untroubled. I had lured him into an ambush. In a way the death of poor George Cox was my responsibility. I had meddled in things that should have been left to the law or, failing that, to God. I may yet go through anguish in hell for my sin. But if I had to live that time again I would do the same,”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“His mind was like a house he had spent his life furnishing.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“What we did in that momentous year of 1558 caused political strife, revolt, civil war, and invasion. There were times, in later years, when in the depths of despair I would wonder whether it had been worth it. The simple idea that people should be allowed to worship as they wished caused more suffering than the ten plagues of Egypt. So, if I had known then what I know now, would I have done the same? Hell yes.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“Her well-being was more important to me than my own. I have learned, during the course of a long life, that that is the meaning of love.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“Alison was relieved: she would have hated to see Mary lose her dignity as well as her life. “Follow me,” said the sheriff. Mary turned back momentarily and took an ivory crucifix from its hook on the wall over the altar. With the cross pressed to her heavy bosom and the prayer book in her other hand she walked behind the sheriff, and Alison followed.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“A child will always be what he is, she thought, and not what you want him to be.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“They demanded tolerance, and the right to worship as they wished, but they were never satisfied with that, he thought with exasperation. They believed their rivals were not just mistaken but evil. Catholic practices—the ways in which Europeans had worshipped for hundreds of years—were blasphemous, they said, and must be abolished. They did not practice the tolerance they preached.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“he thinks the aldermen’s job is to make decisions and then enforce them. When your father was mayor he said that aldermen should rule the town by serving it.” Ned said impatiently: “That sounds like two ways of looking at the same thing.” “It’s not, though,” said his mother. “It’s two different worlds.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“When priests get to run the government it’s bad for business.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“Our work isn’t finished.” “Perhaps it never will be, until the Last Trump.” “All the more reason to carry on.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“Slavery was a major industry in West Africa. Since before anyone could remember, the kings and chieftains of the region had sold their fellow men to Arab buyers who took them to the slave markets of the Middle East. The new European traders horned in on an existing business.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“In the eyes of the church, the Bible was the most dangerous of all banned books—especially translated into French or English, with marginal notes explaining how certain passages proved the correctness of Protestant teaching. Priests said that ordinary people were unable to rightly interpret God’s word, and needed guidance. Protestants said the Bible opened men’s eyes to the errors of the priesthood. Both sides saw reading the Bible as the central issue of the religious conflict that had swept Europe.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“Spain was the richest country in the world but also the most conservative: there were laws against gaudy clothing. The rich dressed in black while the poor wore washed-out browns. It was ironic, Barney thought, how similar extreme Catholics were to extreme Protestants.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“Rollo was driven mad by the idea that people—ignorant, uneducated, stupid ordinary people—had the right to make up their own minds about religion. If such a naïve idea ever gained currency, civilization would collapse. People had to be told what to do.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

“prevarication.”
― Ken Follett, A Column of Fire