Sublime

In the summer of 2004, Dell, a full two years retired from the league, was fully available to teach his eldest son the ways of the jump shot. Ground zero was the half-court adjacent to their Charlotte home, and the two spent hours each day forging a new kind of jumper—a more traditional style that depended on the top-of-the-jump wrist flick most

That’s how myths work. Macduff, and Lady Macbeth.

Play long games

He has no fear of Wriothesley, or anyone like him. You can calculate the actions of unprincipled men. As long as you feed them they’ll run at your heels. Less calculable, more dangerous, are men like Stephen Vaughan, men who write to you, as Vaughan does: Thomas Cromwell, I would do anything for you. Men who say they understand you, whose embrace

There are swords to be wielded by kings and then there are swords to be wielded for kings, with which to do their dirty work. His is the latter.

Nothing is stable in the realm of power, and even the closest of friends can be transformed into the worst of enemies.