Quotes from A Civil Contract

Georgette Heyer ·  384 pages

Rating: (5.4K votes)


“They used to say of me that I'd as many lucky escapes as Harry Smith!'
'Shouldn't be at all surprised: I've seen one of 'em myself,' Brough said cryptically.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from A Civil Contract


“Yet, after all, Jenny thought she had been granted more than she hoped for when she married him. He did love her: differently, but perhaps more enduringly; and he had grown to depend on her. She thought that they would have many years of quiet content: never reaching the heights, but living together in comfort and deepening friendship.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from A Civil Contract


“But it was only in epic tragedies that gloom was unrelieved. In real life tragedy and comedy were so intermingled that when one was most wretched ridiculous things happened to make one laugh in spite of oneself”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from A Civil Contract


“After all, life was not made up of moments of exaltation, but of quite ordinary, everyday things”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from A Civil Contract


“He took her face between his hands, turning it up, and looking down at her for a moment before he kissed her. "I do love you, Jenny," he said gently. "Very much indeed-- you are part of my life. Julia was never that-only a boy's impractical dream.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from A Civil Contract



“Julia stood for his youth, and the high hopes he had cherished; and although he might no longer yearn to possess her she would remain nostalgically dear to him while life endured.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from A Civil Contract


“He didn't choose between me and you, Julia: it was between me and ruin.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from A Civil Contract


“Lord, if we were all to marry our first loves what a plague of ill-assorted marriages there would be!”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from A Civil Contract


“She thought that Fontley had suffered as much from a negligent mistress as from an improvident master.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from A Civil Contract


“No, but on the other hand you don't enact me Cheltenham tragedies when I've barely swallowed my breakfast.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from A Civil Contract



“I’ll say no more about that, or I’ll be falling into the dismals”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from A Civil Contract


“Julia stood for his youth, and the high hopes he had cherished; and although he might no longer yearn to possess her she would remain nostalgically dear to him while life endured. Yet,”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from A Civil Contract


About the author

Georgette Heyer
Born place: in The United Kingdom
Born date August 16, 1902
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“[...] la schiavitù non è altro che il profitto di pochi del lavoro della massa. Perché la schiavitù possa essere abolita è necessario che gli uomini non sfruttino più le fatiche delle masse e che considerino vergognoso e vile tale sfruttamento. Intanto si fa in modo che venga nascosta la forma esteriore della schiavitù e che venga abolito il mercato degli schiavi; così facendo tendiamo a persuaderci che non esiste più la schiavitù e non vediamo e non vogliamo vedere che invece continua a esistere, dal momento che tutti gli uomini continuano a credere che sia giusto sfruttare le fatiche altrui. E poiché quest'opinione resiste, ci saranno sempre quelli più furbi e più forti che si credono in diritto di farlo. La stessa cosa accade con l'emancipazione della donna. Essa viene resa schiava perché ne possiamo approfittare a nostro piacere, e crediamo che ciò sia giusto. Ed ecco che le considerano libere, concedono loro gli stessi diritti degli uomini, ma continuano a pensarle come oggetto di piacere. Con questi principi vengono educate fin dall'infanzia e così vengono considerate in società. Ed esse saranno sempre schiave umiliate e corrotte, e altrettanto corrotto è l'uomo, il loro padrone.”
― Leo Tolstoy, quote from The Kreutzer Sonata


“Sometimes it feels like the whole world is conspiring to destroy my house... "
- Shigure Sohma”
― Natsuki Takaya, quote from Fruits Basket, Vol. 2


“But if there's nothing wrong with me, he thought, then there is something wrong with the world. And if there is nothing wrong with the world, then I have wasted my life and that is the worst mistake of all.”
― Walker Percy, quote from The Last Gentleman


“Do you realize that all great literature is all about what a bummer it is to be a human being? Isn't it such a relief to have somebody say that?”
― Kurt Vonnegut, quote from A Man Without a Country


“And yet. And yet. If asked - if pressed - Honora would have to say she is strangely content. It's an odd feeling that she cannot describe to anyone - not to her mother and certainly not to Sexton, whose unhappiness seems to have no bounds, whose unhappiness is defined now by what he does not have, which is almost everything. He will always, in his mind, be the salesman who no longer has anything to sell. A man who longs for the open road but who cannot ever take it. Whereas Honora, oddly, now has more purpose than she ever did before. She is a dutiful wife who tends to her husband in spite of his weaknesses. She is a woman with ingenuity. She is a woman without illusions. She is a woman who, above all, is too busy trying to make a go of it to fret about her marriage.”
― Anita Shreve, quote from Sea Glass


Interesting books

The Art of Happiness
(70.9K)
The Art of Happiness
by Dalai Lama XIV
Pope Joan
(58.6K)
Pope Joan
by Donna Woolfolk Cross
And the Mountains Echoed
(245K)
And the Mountains Ec...
by Khaled Hosseini
The Crystal Cave
(37.8K)
The Crystal Cave
by Mary Stewart
The Third Policeman
(13.3K)
The Third Policeman
by Flann O'Brien
Aesop's Fables
(103.3K)
Aesop's Fables
by Aesop

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.