Corpus Quotes

“History is meaningless unless you discern how the past shapes the present.”
― Rory Clements, Corpus

“How then can we tell what is true, sir?’ Felsted demanded as he poured the tea. ‘By thinking,’ Wilde said. ‘And by challenging the books you read. By getting dusty in archives. By listening to the evidence of archaeologists and palaeontologists. By using your eyes and ears and brains. And most of all by doubting everything I tell you until you have proved it for yourself.”
― Rory Clements, Corpus

“When revolutionaries see trouble brewing, they seize the ladle to stir the cauldron all the more furiously.”
― Rory Clements, Corpus

“A Waltraud was their private derisory name for the sort of Nazi girl who belonged to the BDM, wore dirndls and eschewed make-up and cigarettes. Was there anyone in the world less like the clean-”
― Rory Clements, Corpus

“You must learn not to rush to judgement. None of us here in this room has any evidence regarding the Crystal Palace fire, so how can you possibly reach a verdict? All you have are your prejudices, which are worthless. It is the same with history.”
― Rory Clements, Corpus

“Make me prove my points, demand evidence, get as near the truth as you can. Re-examine everything you have ever been told and make your own mind up on the evidence you can find. And if there is not enough evidence, then keep an open mind. Become a detective – because if you don’t, you’ll never become a historian.”
― Rory Clements, Corpus

“They thought they were being brave, stoical, manly, by keeping silent. But their silence simply ensured it would all happen again.”
― Rory Clements, Corpus

“he was the bastard son of Machiavelli’s prince, a man who would kill you with soothing words and a blade so sharp you wouldn’t feel it slide into your flesh.”
― Rory Clements, Corpus

“When Tennyson wrote, ‘’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, he didn’t know what he was talking about.”
― Rory Clements, Corpus

“Death is nothing. It is the same as the time before we were born – and we have no fear of that, for it too is nothingness.”
― Rory Clements, Corpus