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It is better not to try people, not to force them to desperation. Make them prosper; out of superfluity, they will be generous. Full bellies breed gentle manners. The pinch of famine makes monsters.

— Hilary Mantel Bring Up the Bodies (2012)

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More quotes by Hilary Mantel

He will remember his first sight of the open sea: a gray wrinkled vastness, like the residue of a dream.

Wolf Hall (2009)

It is a sure sign of troubled minds, the habit of quotation.

Wolf Hall (2009)

A lie is no less a lie because it is a thousand years old.

Wolf Hall (2009)

Lent saps the spirits, as of course it is designed to do.

Wolf Hall (2009)

Gambling is not a vice, if you can afford to do it.

Wolf Hall (2009)

All Hilary Mantel quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Hilary Mantel (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.