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
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“These last weeks, since Christmas, have been odd ones. I have begun to doubt that I knew you as well as I thought. I have even wondered if you wished to keep some part of yourself hidden from me in order to preserve your privacy and your autonomy. I will understand if you refuse to give me an answer tonight, and although I freely admit I will be hurt by such a refusal, you must not allow my feelings to influence your answer." I looked up into his face. "The question I have for you, then is this: How are the fairies in your garden?"

By the yellow streetlights, I saw the trepidation that had been building up in face give way to a flash of relief, then to the familiar signs of outrage: the bulging eyes, the purpling skin, the thin lips. He cleared his throat.

"I am not a man much given to violence," he began, calmly enough, "but I declare that if that man Doyle came before me today, I should be hard-pressed to avoid trouncing him." The image was a pleasing one, two gentlemen on the far side of middle age, one built like a bulldog and the other like a bulldong, engaging in fisticuffs. "It is difficult enough to surmount Watson's apparently endless blather in order to have my voice heard as a scientist, but now, when people hear my name, all they will think of is that disgusting dreamy-eyed little girl and her preposterous paper cutouts. I knew the man was limited, but I did not even suspect that he was insane!"

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