Quotes from Diary of a Provincial Lady

E.M. Delafield ·  388 pages

Rating: (3.5K votes)


“She is never alone when she has Her Books. Books, to her, are Friends. Give her Shakespeare or Jane Austen, Meredith or Hardy, and she is Lost - lost in a world of her own. She sleeps so little that most of her nights are spent reading.”
― E.M. Delafield, quote from Diary of a Provincial Lady


“Am struck by paradoxical thought that youth is by no means the happiest time of life, but that most of the rest of life is tinged by regret for its passing, and wonder what old age will feel like, in this respect. (Shall no doubt discover very shortly.)”
― E.M. Delafield, quote from Diary of a Provincial Lady


“Mucho antes de que estuviéramos a medio camino, y sabedora de que nunca llegaría a la roca, ya confiaba en que la segunda esposa de Robert fuera buena con los niños. La vizcondesa, que nadaba tranquilamente, me preguntó si estaba bien. "Oh, sí", contesté, y acto seguido me hundí.
(Duda: ¿Castigo divino?)”
― E.M. Delafield, quote from Diary of a Provincial Lady


“(Query: Is it possible to cultivate the art of conversation when living in the country all the year round?)”
― E.M. Delafield, quote from Diary of a Provincial Lady


“This suggests Query: Does Robert, perhaps, take in what I say even when he makes no reply?”
― E.M. Delafield, quote from Diary of a Provincial Lady



“(Note: Extreme sensibility of the French sometimes makes them difficult to deal with.)”
― E.M. Delafield, quote from Diary of a Provincial Lady


About the author

E.M. Delafield
Born place: in Steyning, Sussex, The United Kingdom
Born date June 9, 1890
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“as was true with every powerful person I had known, and there were but a few, his greatness made him humble and kind.”
― Patricia Cornwell, quote from The Body Farm


“Sun and moon, sun and moon, time goes.”
― John Updike, quote from Rabbit, Run


“Elizabeth, having rather expected to affront him, was amazed at his gallantry; and Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her. He really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he should be in some danger of falling in love, and were it not for his considerable skill in the deadly arts, that he should be in danger of being bested by hers--for never had he seen a lady more gifted in the ways of vanquishing the undead.”
― Seth Grahame-Smith, quote from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies


“...to form something greater than the sum of its parts.”
― Teri Terry, quote from Slated


“Magnus threw the monkey a fig. The monkey took the fig.
"There," said Magnus. "Let us consider the matter settled."
The monkey advanced, chewing in a menacing fashion.
"I rather wonder what I am doing here. I enjoy city life, you know," Magnus observed. "The glittering lights, the constant companionship, the liquid entertainment. The lack of sudden monkeys."
He ignored Giuliana's advice and took a smart step back, and also threw another piece of fruit. The monkey did not take the bait this time. He coiled and rattled out a growl, and Magnus took several more steps back and into a tree.
Magnus flailed on impact, was briefly grateful that nobody was watching him and expecting him to be a sophisticated warlock, and had a monkey assault launched directly to his face.
He shouted, spun, and sprinted through the rain forest. He did not even think to drop the fruit. It fell one by one in a bright cascade as he ran for his life from the simian menace. He heard it in hot pursuit and fled faster, until all his fruit was gone and he ran right into Ragnor.
"Have a care!" Ragnor snapped.
He detailed his terrible monkey adventure twice.
"But of course you should have retreated at once from the dominant male," Giuliana said. "Are you an idiot? You are extremely lucky he was distracted from ripping out your throat by the fruit. He thought you were trying to steal his females."

"Pardon me, but we did not have the time to exchange that kind of personal information," Magnus said. "I could not have known! Moreover, I wish to assure both of you that I did not make any amorous advances on female monkeys." He paused and winked. "I didn't actually see any, so I never got the chance."
Ragnor looked very regretful about all the choices that had led to his being in this place and especially in this company. Later he stooped and hissed, low enough so Giuliana could not hear and in a way that reminded Magnus horribly of his monkey nemesis: "Did you forget that you can do magic?"
Magnus spared a moment to toss a disdainful look over his shoulder.
"I am not going to ensorcel a monkey! Honestly, Ragnor. What do you take me for?”
― Cassandra Clare, quote from The Bane Chronicles


Interesting books

The Bookshop
(6K)
The Bookshop
by Penelope Fitzgerald
Forever Consumed
(4.1K)
Forever Consumed
by Skyla Madi
Mastiff
(22.2K)
Mastiff
by Tamora Pierce
Jack: A Life of C. S. Lewis
(2.2K)
Dream a Little Dream
(17.5K)
Dream a Little Dream
by Kerstin Gier
Foreplay
(16.4K)
Foreplay
by Sophie Jordan

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.