Quotes from In the Company of the Courtesan

Sarah Dunant ·  368 pages

Rating: (21.6K votes)


“If grace belongs to God, there are those who say that luck belongs to the Devil and that he looks after his own.”
― Sarah Dunant, quote from In the Company of the Courtesan


“Outside, the city is changing. While we have been talking of God's laws and seacrets of the earth, a cold fog has come rolling off the sea, pushing through the allys, sliding over the water, rubbing up agienst the cold stone. As I walk the street falls away behind me, the shop's blue awning lost within seconds. People move like ghosts, their voices disconnected from their bodies; as fast as they loom up they dissapear agien. The fog is so dense that by the time I have crossed toward the Merceria, I can barely see the ground under my feet or tell if the gloom is weather of the beginning of dusk.”
― Sarah Dunant, quote from In the Company of the Courtesan


“I listen to people talking sometimes, that great river that is language, with all its undercurrents of grammar and nuance, and I wonder how we all learn so quickly to speak it, given that we begin when we are barely old enough to stand upright. I have no memory of finding it hard. Indeed, I have no memory of it at all.”
― Sarah Dunant, quote from In the Company of the Courtesan


“It is the ones who keep you in thrall to more than their snatches who command the houses and the gowns to go with them. And for that they have first to love themselves.”
― Sarah Dunant, quote from In the Company of the Courtesan


“in the chaos of war, I would have looked simply small, and therefore neither a promise nor a threat.”
― Sarah Dunant, quote from In the Company of the Courtesan



“I know what she is thinking. That she will never have those feelings. And she wants to have them. Oh, how much she wants to...I have seen it before, the way women yearn more for a child when they have fallen in love. It is part of the disease, like the ague that goes with fever. Maybe the real lover's prick goes deep enough to ignite some loning in the womb. Maybe it is the promise of a future, something left over once the passion is spent.”
― Sarah Dunant, quote from In the Company of the Courtesan


“beauty is your gift from God and it should be used and not squandered. Study this face as if it were a map of the ocean, your own trade route to the Indies. For it will bring you its own fortune. But always believe what the glass tells you. Because while others will try to flatter you, it has no reason to lie.”
― Sarah Dunant, quote from In the Company of the Courtesan


“no one bothered dressing up in priests’ robes, for even in chaos hierarchy rules and their cloth wasn’t rich enough.”
― Sarah Dunant, quote from In the Company of the Courtesan


“Venice the peaceful demands Venice the just.”
― Sarah Dunant, quote from In the Company of the Courtesan


About the author

Sarah Dunant
Born place: in London, The United Kingdom
Born date August 8, 1950
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Popular quotes

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― Morgan Rice, quote from Turned


“Uh, well, I do enjoy meat. The only thing I’ve had to eat so far on Twin Moons is fruit.” “Bonding fruit.” Suddenly Rigid pulled her close and pressed his face to her neck. Kat tried to push him away but he held her tight, inhaling deeply. To her dismay, the heated lump she felt pressed against her thigh proved that he really lived up to his name. “Hey, let me go!” she gasped, pushing at his broad chest. It reminded her of the way Deep had scented her when they first met but this was different—strange. She couldn’t explain it but it felt utterly and completely wrong to have someone who wasn’t Deep or Lock touching her. Especially this intimately. “Hands off, you son of a bitch,” a deep, familiar voice behind her growled. “This female is spoken for.” “Deep?” Kat turned her head and saw him standing there, his black eyes blazing with barely controlled fury. “Oh, thank God! Help me—they won’t let me go!” “That’s because you just agreed to spend the night with them, teasing their cocks with your talented tongue.” “I said what?” Kat gasped as Deep pulled her away from the very irritated Rigid. “I did not! They just asked me if I liked eating meat and I said that yes, I did enjoy it.” “Is that what you heard them say?” Deep frowned as he hustled her away through the crowd. “Well, not in so many words,” Kat said, trying to keep up with him. “I mean, it was more like, uh…” She tried to think of exactly how Large had put it. “Something about discovering the joys of meat.” Deep raised one black eyebrow at her as he dragged her along. “You mean the pleasures of the flesh?” “Oh my God!” Kat shook her head. “But I had no idea that was what they meant. Look, could you please slow down?”
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“In my mind's eye, my chess pieces had grown into lines of dark-skinned men marching forward, being beaten by a white army and crumpling one by one into my father's waiting arms, bloodstains blossoming across their shoulders. (32)”
― Padma Venkatraman, quote from Climbing the Stairs


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