“Men are sheep. Where one goes, the rest will soon follow.
-Lady Whistledown”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“Where is he? Bridgerton!" he bellowed.
Three chestnut heads swiveled in his direction. Simon stomped across the grass, murder in his eyes.
"I meant the idiot Bridgerton."
"That, I believe," Anthony said mildly, tilting his chin toward Colin, "would refer to you.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“To say that men can be bullheaded would be insulting to the bull.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“His mouth captured hers, trying to show her with his kiss what he was still learning to express in words. He loved her. He worshipped her. He'd walk across fire for her. He—
—still had the audience of her three brothers.
Slowly breaking the kiss, he turned his face to the side. Anthony, Benedict, and Colin were still standing in the foyer. Anthony was studying the ceiling, Benedict was pretending to inspect his fingernails, and Colin was staring quite shamelessly.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“And if you say that's because you lot barged into her home like a herd of mentally deficient sheep, I'm disowning all three of you.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“Anthony sneezed and pushed them aside. "Mother, I am trying to have a conversation with the duke."
Violet looked at Simon. "Do you want to have this conversation with my son?"
"Not particularly."
"Fine, then. Anthony, be quiet.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“He gave her a sly, sideways look. "Did you
bring it?"
"My list? Heavens, no. What can you be thinking?"
His smile widened. "I brought mine."
Daphne gasped. "You didn't!"
"I did. Just to torture Mother. I'm going peruse it right in front of her, pull out my quizzing glass—"
"You don't have a quizzing glass."
He grinned—the slow, devastatingly wicked smile that all Bridgerton males seemed to possess. "I bought one just for this occasion."
"Anthony, you absolutely cannot. She will kill you. And then, somehow, she'll find a way to blame me."
"I'm counting on it.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“There were rules among friends, commandments, really, and the most important one was Thou Shalt Not Lust After Thy Friend's Sister.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“She wandered over to the enclosed range, a rather modern-looking contraption that Cook had purchased earlier in the year. “Do you know how to work this?” she asked.
“No idea. You?”
Daphne shook her head. “None.” She reached forward and gingerly touched the surface of the stove top. “It's not hot.”
“Not even a little bit?”
She shook her head. “It's rather cold, actually.”
Brother and sister were silent for a few seconds.
“You know,” Anthony finally said, “cold milk might be quite refreshing.”
“I was just thinking that very thing!”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“A duel, a duel, a duel. Is there anything more exciting, more romantic ... or more utterly moronic?”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“Colin's chuckles grew more heartfelt. "You really ought to have more faith in your favorite brother, dear sis."
"He’s your favorite brother?" Simon asked, one dark brow raised in disbelief.
"Only because Gregory put a toad in my bed last night," Daphne bit off, "and Benedict's standing has never recovered from the time he beheaded my favorite doll."
"Makes me wonder what Anthony's done to deny him even an honorable mention," Colin murmured.
"Don't you have somewhere else to be?" Daphne asked pointedly.
Colin shrugged. "Not really."
"Didn't," she asked through clenched teeth, "you just tell me you promised a dance to Prudence Featherington?"
"Gads, no. You must have misheard."
"Perhaps Mother is looking for you, then. In fact, I'm certain I hear her calling your name."
Colin grinned at her discomfort. "You're not supposed to be so obvious," he said in a stage whisper, purposely loud enough for Simon to hear. "He'll figure out that you like him."
Simon's entire body jerked with barely contained mirth.
"It's not his company I'm trying to secure," Daphne said acidly. "It's yours I'm trying to avoid."
Colin clapped a hand over his heart. "You wound me, Daff." He turned to Simon. "Oh, how she wounds me."
"You missed your calling, Bridgerton," Simon said genially. "You should have been on the stage."
"An interesting idea," Colin replied, "but one that would surely give my mother the vapors." His eyes lit up. "Now that's an idea. And just when the party was growing tedious. Good eve to you both." He executed a smart bow and walked off.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“The look Anthony shot at his sister was so comically malevolent Simon nearly laughed. He managed to restrain himself, but mostly just because he was fairly certain that any show of humor would cause Anthony's fist to lose its battle with his brain, with Simon's face emerging as the conflict's primary casualty.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a married man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of an heir.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“Daphne," he said with controlled gentleness, "what is wrong?"
She sat down opposite him and placed a hand on his cheek. "I'm so insensitive," she whispered. "I should have known. I should never have said anything."
"Should have known what?" he ground out.
Her hand fell away. "That you can't—that you couldn't—"
"Can't what?"
She looked down at her lap, where her hands were attempting to wring each other to shreds. "Please don't make me say it," she said.
'This," Simon muttered, "has got to be why men avoid marriage.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“First of all, this goes no further than this room."
"Agreed," she said quickly.
Anthony looked pointedly at Simon.
"Of course," he replied.
"Mother would be devastated if she learned the truth."
"Actually," Simon murmured, "I rather think your mother would applaud our ingenuity, but since you have quite obviously known
her longer, I bow to your discretion."
Anthony shot him a frosty look. "Second, under no circumstances are the two of you to be alone together. Ever."
"Well, that should be easy," Daphne said, "as we wouldn't be allowed to be alone if we were courting in truth, anyway."
Simon recalled their brief interlude in the hall at Lady Danbury's house, and found it a pity that he wasn't to be allowed any more private time with Daphne, but he recognized a brick wall when he saw one, especially when said wall happened to be named
Anthony Bridgerton. So he just nodded and murmured his assent.
"Third—"
"There is a third?" Daphne asked.
"There would be thirty if I could think of them," Anthony growled.
"Very well," she acceded, looking most aggrieved. "If you must.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“Did you know I have always suspected that men were idiots," Daphne ground out, "but I was never positive until today.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“Reformed rakes make the best husbands,"Violet said.
"Rubbish and you know it."
-Anthony to Violet”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“I don't like your tone," was Violet's standard answer when one of her children was winning an argument.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“Heartache, Daphne eventually learned, never really went away; it just dulled. The sharp, stabbing pain that one felt with each breath eventually gave way to a blunter, lower ache—the kind that one could almost—but never quite—ignore.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“Simon stopped breathing until her forefinger touched his nipple, and then his hand shot up to cover hers. "I want you," he said.
Her eyes flicked downward, and her lips curved ever so slightly. "I know."
"No," he groaned, pulling her closer. "I want to be in your heart. I want-" His entire body shuddered when their skin touched. "I want to be in your soul.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“Daphne Bridgerton, I don't—"
"—like my tone, I know." Daphne grinned. "But you love me."
Violet smiled warmly and wrapped an arm around Daphne's shoulder. "Heaven help me, I do."
Daphne gave her mother a quick peck on the cheek. "It's the curse of motherhood. You're required to love us even when we vex you."
Violet just sighed. "I hope that someday you have children—"
"—just like me, I know." Daphne smiled nostalgically and rested her head on her mother's shoulder. Her mother could be overly inquisitive, and her father had been more interested in hounds and hunting than he'd been in society affairs, but theirs had been a warm marriage, filled with love, laughter, and children. "I could do a great deal worse than follow your example, Mother," she murmured.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“Tonight," he whispered, his voice hoarse and hot in her ear, "I will make you mine."
-Simon to Daphne”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“But Hyacinth Bridgerton, who at ten should have known the least about kisses of anyone, just blinked thoughtfully, and said, “I think it's nice. If they're laughing now, they'll probably be laughing forever.” She turned to her mother. “Isn't that a good thing?”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“As his hands moved to his trousers, he saw that she was pulling the bedsheets over her. "Don't," he said, barely recognizing his own voice. Her eyes met his, and he said, "I'll be your blanket".”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“You have a minute and a half left."
"Fine," she snapped. "Then I'll reduce this conversation to one single fact. Today I had six callers. Six! Can you recall the last time I had six callers?"
Anthony just stared at her blankly.
"I can't," Daphne continued, in fine form now. "Because it has never happened. Six men marched up our steps, knocked on our door, and gave Humboldt their cards. Six men brought me flowers, engaged me in conversation, and one even recited poetry."
Simon winced.
"And do you know why?" she demanded, her voice rising dangerously. "Do you?"
Anthony, in his somewhat belatedly arrived wisdom, held his tongue.
"It is all because he"—she jabbed her forefinger toward Simon—"was kind enough to feign interest in me last night at Lady Danbury's ball.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“I knew nothing but love and devotion when I was growing up. Trust me, it makes everything easier.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“It's the curse of motherhood. You're required to love us even when we vex you.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“Any man, you'll soon learn, has an insurmountable need to blame someone else when he is made to look a fool.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“Daphne felt something wild and wicked take hold. “Let’s walk in the garden,” she said softly.
“We can’t.”
“We must.”
“We can’t.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“When you smile it takes up half your face.'
'Simon!' she exclaimed. 'That sounds horrible.'
'It's enchanting.'
'Distorted.'
'Desirable.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from The Duke and I
“The sensation I was feeling on the clifftop was some sort of reverberation in the air itself.… The whale had submerged and I was still feeling something. The strange rhythm seemed now to be coming from behind me, from the land, so I turned to look across the gorge … where my heart stopped.… Standing there in the shade of the tree was an elephant … staring out to sea!… A female with a left tusk broken off near the base.… I knew who she was, who she had to be. I recognized her from a color photograph put out by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry under the title “The Last Remaining Knysna Elephant.” This was the Matriarch herself.… She was here because she no longer had anyone to talk to in the forest. She was standing here on the edge of the ocean because it was the next, nearest, and most powerful source of infrasound. The underrumble of the surf would have been well within her range, a soothing balm for an animal used to being surrounded by low and comforting frequencies, by the lifesounds of a herd, and now this was the next-best thing. My heart went out to her. The whole idea of this grandmother of many being alone for the first time in her life was tragic, conjuring up the vision of countless other old and lonely souls. But just as I was about to be consumed by helpless sorrow, something even more extraordinary took place.… The throbbing was back in the air. I could feel it, and I began to understand why. The blue whale was on the surface again, pointed inshore, resting, her blowhole clearly visible. The Matriarch was here for the whale! The largest animal in the ocean and the largest living land animal were no more than a hundred yards apart, and I was convinced that they were communicating! In infrasound, in concert, sharing big brains and long lives, understanding the pain of high investment in a few precious offspring, aware of the importance and the pleasure of complex sociality, these rare and lovely great ladies were commiserating over the back fence of this rocky Cape shore, woman to woman, matriarch to matriarch, almost the last of their kind. I turned, blinking away the tears, and left them to it. This was no place for a mere man.… Early afternoon. They were coming to this place, to this tall grass, all along. They will feed here for a while and then, because there’s no water right here, go down to where those egrets are. There’s water there. After they’ve had a good drink, they might make a big loop and come back here again later to feed some more. It will be a one-family-at-a-time choice as the adults decide when to drink and bathe. When elephants are finally ready to make a significant move, everyone points in the same direction. But they do wait until the matriarch decides. “I’ve seen families cued up waiting for half an hour,” comments Vicki, “waiting for the matriarch to signal, ‘Okay.’” And now they go. Makelele, eleven years old, walks with a deep limp. Five years ago he showed up with a broken right rear leg. It must have been agony, and it’s healed at a horrible angle, almost as if his knee faces backward, shaping that leg like the hock on a horse. Yet he is here, surviving with a little help from his friends. “He’s slow,” Vicki acknowledges. “It’s remarkable that he’s managing, but his family seems to wait for him.” Another Amboseli elephant, named Tito, broke a leg when he was a year old, probably from falling into a garbage pit.”
― Carl Safina, quote from Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel
“Rose wasn't going to write a book or swim the Channel or do anything different - because once you're pregnant, you're finished.”
― Kate Quinn, quote from The Alice Network
“There’s an Oriental saying I like: “If aggression meets empty space it tends to defeat itself.”
― Matthew Reilly, quote from The Tournament
“Don't trust the fire, for it will burn you.
Don't trust the ice, for it will freeze you.
Don't trust the water, for it will drown you.
Don't trust the air, for it will choke you.
Don't trust the earth, for it will bury you.
Don't trust the trees, for they will rip you,
rend you, tear you, kill you dead.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, quote from The Queen of Blood
“She looked like a whisper made real.”
― Brittany Cavallaro, quote from The Last of August
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