Quotes from Venetia

Georgette Heyer ·  364 pages

Rating: (11.3K votes)


“As soon as one promises not to do something, it becomes the one thing above all others that one most wishes to do.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“There is nothing so mortifying as to fall in love with someone who does not share one's sentiments.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“O God, I love you to the edge of madness, Venetia, but I'm not mad yet--not so mad that I don't know how disastrous it might be to you--to us both! You don't realize what an advantage I should be taking of your innocence!”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“I don't know what you may have seen fit to tell her, Venetia, but so far as I understand it you could think of nothing better to do than to beguile her with some farrago about wishing Damerel to strew rose-leaves for you to walk on!"
Damerel, who had resumed his seat, had been staring moodily into the fire, but at these words he looked up quickly. "Rose-leaves?" His eyes went to Venetia's face, wickedly quizzing her. "But my dear girl, at this season?"
"Be quiet, you wretch!" she said, blushing.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“Fair Fatality, you are the most unusual female I have encountered in all my thirty-eight years!" "You can't think how deeply flattered I am!" she assured him. "I daresay my head would be quite turned if I didn't suspect that amongst so many a dozen or so may have slipped from your memory.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia



“His attention caught, her companion raised his eyes from the book which lay open beside him on the table and directed them upon her in a look of aloof enquiry. 'What's that? Did you say something to me, Venetia?'
'Yes, love,' responded his sister cheerfully, 'but it wasn't of the least consequence, and in any event I answered for you. You would be astonished, I daresay, if you knew what interesting conversations I enjoy with myself.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“...Gentlemen don't understand anything, however wise they may be.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“This, said Damerel wrathfully, is the second time you have walked in just as I am about to propose to your sister!”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“Goodbye!" "Oh, not goodbye!" he protested. "I mean to know you better, Miss Lanyon of Undershaw!" "To be sure, it does seem a pity you should not, after such a promising start, but life, you know, is full of disappointments, and that, I must warn you, is likely to prove one of them.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“The more enchanted the idyll, greater must be the pain of its ending.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia



“How very odd, to be sure!’ ‘What is?’ She walked on, her brow a little furrowed. ‘Wishing to kiss someone you never saw before in your life. It seems quite mad-brained to me, besides showing a sad want of particularity.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“Morals and medicine warred within his breast, and medicine won the day- but I dare say morals may give him a sleepless night.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“Perhaps you have friends already who laugh when you do,’ she said diffidently. ‘I haven’t, and it’s important, I think – more important than sympathy in affliction, which you might easily find in someone you positively disliked.’ ‘But to share a sense of the ridiculous prohibits dislike – yes, that’s true. And rare!”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“Yes, love," responded his sister cheerfully, "but it wasn't of the least consequence, and in any event I answered for you. You would be astonished, I daresay, if you knew what interesting conversations I enjoy with myself.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“I don’t think I am green. It’s true I only know what I’ve read in books, but I’ve read a great many books”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia



“there was something very taking in her face which owed nothing to the excellence of her features: an expression of sweetness, a sparkle of irrepressible fun, an unusually open look, quite devoid of self-consciousness.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“In all of this she was only partially successful, for although Nurse knew that once Miss Venetia had made up her mind she was powerless to prevent her doing whatever she liked, and was obliged to admit some faint resemblance in Damerel to the Good Samaritan, she persisted in referring to him as The Ungodly, and in ascribing his charitable behaviour to some obscure but evil motive. She”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“Mrs Hendred did not like the people around her to be unhappy. Even the sight of a housemaid crying with the pain of the toothache made her feel low, for misery had no place in her comfortable existence; and when it obtruded itself on her notice it dimmed the warm sunshine in which she basked, and quite ruined her belief in a world where everyone was contented, and affluent, and cheerful.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“But that’s what he did, and if he has made up his mind to be idiotishly noble – Yes, it is going to be very difficult. I must think!”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“Venetia had no guile, and no affectations; she knew the world only by the books she had read; experience had never taught her to doubt the sincerity of anyone who did her a kindness.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia



“It was like a bad dream, in which people one knew quite well behaved fantastically, and one was powerless to escape from some dreadful doom.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“Men – witness all the histories! – were subject to sudden lusts and violences, affairs that seemed strangely divorced from heart or head, and often more strangely still from what were surely their true characters. For them chastity was not a prime virtue: she remembered her amazement when she had discovered that so correct a gentleman and kind a husband as Sir John Denny had not always been faithful to his lady. Had Lady Denny cared? A little, perhaps, but she had not allowed it to blight her marriage. ‘Men, my love, are different from us,’ she had said once, ‘even the best of them! I tell you this because I hold it to be very wrong to rear girls in the belief that the face men show to the females they respect is their only one. I daresay, if we were to see them watching some horrid, vulgar prize-fight, or in company with women of a certain class, we shouldn’t recognise our own husbands and brothers. I am very sure we should think them disgusting!”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“There was nothing in store at Undershaw for his lordship but a set-down, but it was disappointing to be granted no opportunity to deliver this.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“These were all things which a youth chafing against the restrictions of a polite age admired: but when he met them in a rival he bitterly resented them, because he knew himself to be at a disadvantage, playing the Corsair’s rôle in front of the Corsair himself. Had”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“They must have had a great deal of practice, though I don’t think it can be wholly due to practice, do you? I never met a rake before, or thought much about it, but I should suppose that a man could scarcely become one – well, not a very successful one, at all events – if he were not naturally engaging.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia



“The most she could wring from him was a promise that he would say nothing uncivil to Mrs Scorrier unless she offered him provocation, and with this she had to try at least to be satisfied. But as what Aubrey might regard as provocation depended to a large extent upon his mood her expectations were not high;”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“The end of the idyll was implicit in the beginning: I at least knew that, though you might not. And also that the more enchanted the idyll the greater must be the pain of its ending. That won’t endure. Hearts don’t really break, you know.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“it is so stupid to say, as Edward does, that Aubrey ought to like what he detests, because other boys do. Aubrey is himself, and no one can alter him, so what is the use of saying he ought, when he won’t?”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“Mrs Hendred was a very pretty woman of great good-nature and much less than commonsense.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia


“She could only marvel at him. She had never possessed the key to his mind, and what circumstance it was that made him now so calmly confident was beyond her power to fathom. She did not believe him to be desperately in love with her; she could only suppose that having once made up his mind that she was the wife that would best suit him he had either grown too accustomed to the idea to be able easily to relinquish it, or that the good opinion he had of himself made it impossible for him to believe that she could in all seriousness reject his offer.”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Venetia



About the author

Georgette Heyer
Born place: in The United Kingdom
Born date August 16, 1902
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“The gate downstairs has a dead bolt,” said Frost. “There’s no way you could pick the lock.” “Then how could anyone …” She went dead silent. Turned toward the doorway. Footsteps were thumping up the stairs. In an instant her weapon was drawn and clutched in both hands. Pushing aside Mr. Kwan, she quickly slipped out of the bedroom. As she eased her way across the living room, she felt her heart banging, heard Frost’s footsteps creaking on her right. Smelled incense and mold and sweat, a dozen details assaulting her at once. But it was the stairwell door she focused on, a black portal to something that was now climbing toward them. Something that suddenly took on the shape of a man. “Freeze!” Frost commanded. “Boston PD!” “Whoa, Frost.” Johnny Tam gave a startled laugh. “It’s just me.” Behind her, Jane heard Mr. Kwan give a squawk of fear. “Who is he? Who is he?” “What the hell, Tam,” said Frost, huffing out a breath as he holstered his weapon. “I could have blown your head off.” “You did tell me to meet you here, didn’t you? I would’ve gotten here sooner, but I got stuck in traffic coming back from Springfield.” “You talk to the owner of that Honda?” “Yeah. Said it was stolen right out of his driveway. And that wasn’t his GPS in the car.” He swept his flashlight around the room. “So what’s going on in here?” “Mr. Kwan’s giving us a tour of the building.” “It’s been boarded up for years.”
― Tess Gerritsen, quote from The Silent Girl


“Let it be enough, Tesoro. It has to be enough.”
― Elizabeth Hunter, quote from A Fall of Water


“the definition of a machine is simple. It is anything that reduces human effort. Anything.”
― Chetan Bhagat, quote from Five Point Someone


“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. —Marianne Williamson”
― Alyson Noel, quote from Horizon


“My mother once told me that you had to trust that the first thing out of a person's mouth was the truth. After they have a chance to think about it, they'll change what they say to be more socially acceptable, something they think you'll be happier with, something they think will get the results they want.”
― Patricia Briggs, quote from Moon Called


Interesting books

On Dublin Street
(151K)
On Dublin Street
by Samantha Young
Sometimes a Great Notion
(17.3K)
Sometimes a Great No...
by Ken Kesey
The Last of the Mohicans
(77.1K)
The Last of the Mohi...
by James Fenimore Cooper
Ugly Love
(127K)
Ugly Love
by Colleen Hoover
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
(369.2K)
The Ocean at the End...
by Neil Gaiman
A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
(19K)
A River Runs Through...
by Norman Maclean

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.