“Remind me one day to teach you how to achieve a sneer, Hugh. Yours is too pronounced, and thus but a grimace. It should be but a faint curl of the lips.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“His Grace was at her side, and lifted her down from the chair.
"My enfant," he said , "duchesses do not dance on chairs, nor do they call their brothers 'imbécile'."
Léonie's twinkled irrepressibly.
"I do," she said firmly.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“Léonie, you will do well to consider. You are not the first woman in my life."
She smiled through her tears. "Monseigneur, I would so much rather be the last woman than the first,” she said.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“My house seems remarkably full of people," he observed. "Is it possible we were expected.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“A certain cynicism, born of the life she has led; a streak of strange wisdom; the wistfulness behind the gaiety; sometimes fear; and nearly always the memory of loneliness that hurts the soul.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“Child, you do not know me. You have created a mythical being in my likeness whom you have set up as a god. It is not I. Many times, infant, I have told you that I am no hero, but I think you have not believed me. I tell you now that I am no fit mate for you...My reputation is damaged beyond repair, child. I come from vicious stock, and I have brought no honor to the name I bear. To no women have I been faithful; behind me lies scandal upon sordid scandal...You have seen perhaps the best of me; you have not seen the worst'
'Ah, Monseigneur, you need not have told me this! I know--I have always known, and still I love you. I do not want a boy. I only want Monseigneur.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“M'sieur, I am as a slave to my wife." He kissed the tips of his fingers. "I am as the dirt beneath her feet." He clasped his hands. "I must bestow on her all that she desires, or die!"
"Pray make use of my sword, " invited his Grace. "It is in the corner behind you.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“Wonderful!" said the Duke. "We progress!"
"We...? Progress? You said we? Progress?"
"It seems I erred," Avon sighed. "We remain at the same place.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“Monseigneur, I have killed you! You are dead! You are dead!"
You display an unseemly joy," he remarked. "I had no notion you were so bloodthirsty.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“I do not want a boy. I only want Monseigneur!”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“I am relieved. May I now have the truth?”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“I cannot bear to go back alone - to the world I have lived in with you.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“I believe I have several times requested you not to call Rupert 'imbecile', infant."
"But Monseigheur, he is an imbecile!" she protested. "You know he is!"
"Undoubtedly, ma fille, but I do not tell the whole world so."
"Then I do not know what I am to call him," said Leonie.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“It must have been-hell!" Merivale said.
"Just so," bowed his Grace. "It was the very worst kind of hell, as I know."
"The wonder is that she has come through it unscathed."
The hazel eyes lifted.
"Not quite unscathed, my dear Anthony. Those years have left their mark."
"It were inevitable, I suppose. But I confess I have not seen the mark."
"Possibly not. You see the roguery, and the dauntless spirit."
"And you?" Merivale watched him curiously.
"Oh, I see beneath, my dear! But then, I have had experience of the sex, as you know."
"And you see-what?"
"A certain cynicism, born of the life she has led; a streak of strange wisdom; the wistfulness behind the gaiety; sometimes fear; and nearly always the memory of loneliness that hurts the soul.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“Of a certainty Madame has died," Leonie said wickedly. "Tiens, c'est bien drole!”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
“You'll dine with us, Comte? And you, Anthony?"
"I trespass on your hospitality!" Armand protested.
"Devil a bit, man!" said Rupert. "It's Avon's hospitality you trespass on, and our patience.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from These Old Shades
Georgette Heyer
Born place: in The United Kingdom
Born date August 16, 1902
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“Age is no longer the primary factor that determines where you are on the map. Life is now less about how old you are and more about when you decide to live.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters
“Sono gli impiegati che inventano, in fin dei conti, tutte queste scartoffie [i passaporti] per avvelenare la vita agli uomini, e le loro disposizioni non vanno prese troppo sul serio.”
― Czesław Miłosz, quote from Native Realm: A Search for Self-Definition
“The social pact, far from destroying natural equality, substitutes, on the contrary, a moral and lawful equality for whatever physical inequality that nature may have imposed on mankind; so that however unequal in strength and intelligence, men become equal by covenant and by right.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, quote from The Social Contract
“If the weather isn't bad and it's a clear night, I spend fifteen or twenty minutes before bedtime out on the deck looking skyward, or, using a flashlight, I pick my way along the dirt road to the open pasture at the peak of my hill, from where I can see, from above the treeline, the whole heavenly inventory, stars unfurled in every direction, and, just this week, the planets Jupiter in the east and Mars in the west. It is beyond belief and also a fact, a plain and indisputable face: that we are born, that this is here. I can think of worse ways to end my day.”
― Philip Roth, quote from I Married a Communist
“Jealousy is a fever that arises from a stupid, baseless excitement in our unthinking brain.
Jealousy is a phenomenon of auto-suggestion.
The woman you love has gone to bed with X. You hate X, you hate her, and you have perpetually before your eyes the vision of your loved one and X embracing in an act that fills you with horror.
But you too in your time have deceived the woman you love and have done with Y what X did in bed with woman you love.
Well, what remains in your skin ,your mind of Mrs Y? Nothing whatever. No more than X left with your woman.
In other words, auto suggestion. Do you want evidence of that? Well, then, if you don't know the man, you imagine him to be hateful, offensive, repulsive, and you feel that if you met him you'd kill him.
But, if you happen to see his photograph, you begin to realize that it's possible to look at him without horror; and believe me, if you were actually introduced to him you'd approach him with a cordial smile on your lips, look him in the eye without trembling and, if you have reached my degree of perfection, you'd actually be capable of cheerfully patting him on the back and telling him he's a good chap.
In a not too distant future, reason and education will have driven home the lesson of the futility of jealousy.”
― Pitigrilli, quote from Cocaine
Zeno's Conscience
Succubus Dreams
Sweet Dreams
The Dark Is Rising
Darkest Hour
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