Quotes from Lady Audley's Secret

“Surely a pretty woman never looks prettier than when making tea.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“Phoebe Marks was a person who never lost her individuality. Silent and self-contained, she seemed to hold herself within herself, and take no colour from the outer world.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“Why, I can't help smiling at people, and speaking prettily to them. I know I'm no better than the rest of the world; but I can't help it if I'm pleasanter. It's constitutional.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“He forgot that love, which is a madness, and a scourge, and a fever, and a delusion, and a snare, is also a mystery, and very imperfectly understood by everyone except the individual sufferer who writhes under its tortures.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“The Eastern potentate who declared that women were at the bottom of all mischief, should have gone a little further and seen why it is so. It is because women are never lazy. They don’t know what it is to be quiet. They are Semiramides, and Cleopatras, and Joan of Arcs, Queen Elizabeths, and Catharine the Seconds, and they riot in battle, and murder, and clamour, and desperation. If they can’t agitate the universe and play at ball with hemispheres, they’ll make mountains of warfare and vexation out of domestic molehills; and social storms in household teacups. Forbid them to hold forth upon the freedom of nations and the wrongs of mankind, and they’ll quarrel with Mrs Jones about the shape of a mantle or the character of a small maid-servant. To call them the weaker sex is to utter a hideous mockery. They are the stronger sex, the nosier, the more persevering, the most self-assertive sex.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“You seem to have quite a taste for discussing these horrible subjects," she said, rather scornfully; "you ought to have been a detective police officer."

"I sometimes think I should have been a good one."

"Why?"

"Because I am patient.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“Do you think I will suffer myself to be baffled?”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“He was a square, pale-faced man of almost forty, and had the appearance of having outlived every emotion to which humanity is subject.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“We hear every day of murders committed in the country. Brutal and treacherous murders; slow, protracted agonies from poisons administered by some kindred hand; sudden and violent deaths by cruel blows, inflicted with a stake cut from some spreading oak, whose every shadow promised—peace. In the county of which I write, I have been shown a meadow in which, on a quiet summer Sunday evening, a young farmer murdered the girl who had loved and trusted him; and yet, even now, with the stain of that foul deed upon it, the aspect of the spot is—peace. No species of crime has ever been committed in the worst rookeries about Seven Dials that has not been also done in the face of that rustic calm which still, in spite of all, we look on with a tender, half-mournful yearning, and associate with—peace.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“[...] that magic power of fascination by which a woman can charm with a word or intoxicate with a smile”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“. . . when the horror of his grief was new to him, and every object in life, however trifling or however important, seem saturated with his one great sorrow.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“Now love is so very subtle an essence, such an indefinable metaphysical marvel, that its due force, though very cruelly felt by the sufferer himself, is never clearly understood by those who look on at his torments and wonder why he takes the common fever so badly.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“. . . and he knew that our dreams are none the less terrible to lose, because they have never been the realities for which we have mistaken them.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“For you see Miss Lucy Graham was blessed with that magic power of fascination by which a woman can charm with a word or intoxicate with a smile”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“What had been his love for his first wife but a poor, pitiful, smouldering spark, too dull to be distinguished, too feeble to burn? But *this* was love - this fever, this longing, this restless, uncertain, miserable hesitation [...]”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“We are apt to be angry with this cruel hardness in our life—this unflinching regularity in the smaller wheels and meaner mechanism of the human machine, which knows no stoppage or cessation, though the mainspring be forever hollow, and the hands pointing to purposeless figures on a shattered dial.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“To call them the weaker sex is to utter a hideous mockery. They are the stronger sex, the noisier, the more persevering, the most self-assertive sex.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

“It is because women are never lazy. They don't know what it is to be quiet. They are Semiramides, and Cleopatras, and Joan of Arcs, Queen Elizabeths, and Catharine the Seconds, and they riot in battle, and murder, and clamour, and desperation.
If they can't agitate the universe and play at ball with hemispheres, they'll make mountains of warfare and vexation out of domestic molehills; and social storms in household teacups. Forbid them to hold forth upon the freedom of nations and the wrongs of mankind, and they'll quarrel with Mrs. Jones about the shape of a mantle or the character of a small maid-servant.
To call them the weaker sex is to utter a hideous mockery. They are the stronger sex, the noisier, the more persevering, the most self-assertive sex. They want freedom of opinion, variety of occupation, do they? Let them have it. Let them be lawyers, doctors, preachers, teachers, soldiers, legislators — anything they like — but let them be quiet — if they can.”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, quote from Lady Audley's Secret

About the author

Popular quotes

“Mother was like this sometimes. Conversations became riddles with traps in them, and your answers had consequences.”
― Frances Hardinge, quote from A Skinful of Shadows

“Bear in mind that the measure of a man is the worth of the things he cares about.”
― Marcus Aurelius, quote from The Emperor's Handbook

“I thought he was talking about my grandmother. I didn't want to see her. I knew she had died - of thirst, maybe - and I was afraid she wouldn't be as I remembered her. I was afraid she wouldn't have the black shawl on her head, nor those burning tears in her eyes, nor that clear, calm expression that could make you forget you were cold.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Day

“I told you before that Johnson would be off the board, and he will be. We didn’t take him at Tycho, and we’ll take him somewhere else. He is my white whale, and I will hunt him to the end of time.” Rosenfeld looked down at his bulb, his body hunching a degree in submission. Filip had felt his father’s victory like it was his own. “Didn’t finish reading that book, did you?” Rosenfeld asked mildly.”
― quote from Babylon's Ashes

“Remember having a panic attack isn’t a failure, and not having one isn’t a success. Success is not letting the attacks run your life”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean

Interesting books

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.