Top 250 Georgette Heyer Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “She thought, in touching innocence, that in Miles Calverleigh she had found a friend, and a better one by far than any other, because his mind moved swiftly, because he could make her laugh even when she was out of charity with him, and because of a dozen other attributes which were quite frivolous – hardly attributes at all, in fact – but which added up to a charming total, outweighing the more important faults in his character.”

— Georgette Heyer

52. “Sir Tristram was contemplating with grim misgiving the prospect of encountering vivacity at the breakfast-table for the rest of his life...”

— Georgette Heyer

53. “Mr Warboys, without putting himself to the trouble of deciding which of the more ferocious animals his friend resembled, stated the matter in simple, and courageously frank terms. “You know, old fellow,” he once told Martin,“if you had a tail, damme if you wouldn’t lash it!”

— Georgette Heyer

54. “This is my cousin, by the way. I dare say you know of him. He is very wicked and kills people in duels. Vidal, this is Frederick.”

— Georgette Heyer

55. “On the toodle last night, and not feeling quite the thing today?”

— Georgette Heyer

56. “I do not want a boy. I only want Monseigneur!”

— Georgette Heyer

57. “Of a certainty Madame has died,” Leonie said wickedly. “Tiens, c’est bien drole!”

— Georgette Heyer

58. “There is a worse tyranny than that of ill-treatment. It is the tyranny of tears, vapours, appeals to feelings of affection and of gratitude!”

— Georgette Heyer

59. “You’ve never been in a scrape yet but what it came about by accident. The thing is, no one else has these accidents.”

— Georgette Heyer

60. “Bouncer, recognizing a well-wisher, got up, and thrust his cold, wet nose under her hand, assuming as he did so the soulful expression of a dog who takes but a benevolent interest in cats, livestock, and stray visitors.”

— Georgette Heyer

61. “If you had not done such a shabby thing to me I would not have had you kidnapped.”

— Georgette Heyer

62. “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

63. “In my experience, the human mind, when under the influence of fear, rushes round in frantic circles.”

— Georgette Heyer

64. “Entertaining females with accounts of jug-bitten maunderings is one of my favourite pastimes.”

— Georgette Heyer

65. “She succumbed to the eternal feminine passion for bargains.”

— Georgette Heyer

66. “When I think of all the pretty and lovely girls who have done their best to attach him, and he tells me that he has offered for an insipid female who has neither fortune nor any extraordinary degree of beauty, besides being stupidly shy and dowdy, I – oh, I could go into strong hysterics!”

— Georgette Heyer

67. “Did you imagine that you would make me believe ill of Sophy with your foolish and spiteful letter!′ he demanded. ‘You have tried to set me against her from the outset, but you over-reached yourself today, my girl! How dared you write in such terms to me! How could you have been so crassly stupid as to suppose that Sophy could ever need your countenance to set her right in the eyes of the world, or that I would believe one word of slander against her?”

— Georgette Heyer

68. “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

69. “Reflect that you could have written the book so much better yourself, if only you had the time and the inclination for the task; and that the literate won’t be listening, if you’re speaking on air, or doing more than glance at your review, if it appears in print; and go right ahead! There will be no reprisals. If the author is young and struggling, he won’t dare to expose your pretensions; and if he is well established he won’t think it worth while to do so.”

— Georgette Heyer

70. “No, no I wouldn’t annoy him for the world!” Aubrey said. “I do think he was quite pleased to see his little Aubrey, don’t you? I have always regarded myself as the feminine influence in the family and quite definitely beneficent.”

— Georgette Heyer

71. “Do you know,’ she said slowly, ‘I have just thought – Mr Beaumaris, something tells me that Lady Bridlington may not like this dear little dog!’ Mr Beaumaris waited in patient resignation for his certain fate to descend upon him.”

— Georgette Heyer

72. “Nothing doing. I’ve no doubt you think I should look noble as a sacrifice. But I’ve never wanted to look noble, and I won’t be made to. – Neville Fletcher.”

— Georgette Heyer

73. “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

74. “She had herself been sadly disappointed, for she had thought him a man of sense, certainly not one to be succumbing to childish ailments at inopportune moments.”

— Georgette Heyer

75. “I daresay he won’t remain at the Priory above a day or two, but while he is here it will be best for you to discontinue your solitary walks,’ Edward said, with a calm assumption of authority which she found so irritating.”

— Georgette Heyer

76. “He had a singularly charming smile, and it ensured for him, no matter how exacting might be his demands, the uncomplaining exertions of his servants. He was perfectly well aware of that, just as he was aware of the value of the word of praise dropped at exactly the right moment; and he would have thought himself extremely stupid to withhold what cost him so little and was productive of such desirable results.”

— Georgette Heyer

77. “He was silent. Well! Now she knew how right she had been. He was not in the least in love with her, and very happy she was to know it, All she wanted was a suitable retreat, such as a lumber-room, or a coal-cellar, in which to enjoy her happiness to the full.”

— Georgette Heyer

78. “Levity was ever your besetting sin,’ he said severely. ‘Let me tell you that it is not at all becoming in a female! It leads you into talking a deal of improper nonsense.”

— Georgette Heyer

79. “Judging from the letters I’ve received from obviously feeble-minded persons who wish I would write another These Old Shades, it ought to sell like hot cakes.”

— Georgette Heyer

80. “I like very few people nowadays; in fact, the number of persons whom I cordially dislike increases almost hourly.”

— Georgette Heyer

81. “I too have been badly deceived in myself,” he said, shaking his head. “Would you believe it? – I had no notion that I was such a monster of inhumanity as I have proved myself to be.”

— Georgette Heyer

82. “Next you will say that you don’t intend to have more than one house in the country!’ ‘Nay, I shan’t say that! I want one in Leicestershire.’ ‘Oh, in that case there’s no more to be said, for I’ve set my heart on one in the moon!’ ‘You don’t mean that, love! Nay then, you can’t have thought!’ he expostulated. ‘It’s much too far from town!”

— Georgette Heyer

83. “The sight which met her eyes held her frozen on the threshold, and the thought flashed across her mind that she knew now how it felt to die.”

— Georgette Heyer

84. “Positively you overwhelm me!’ my lord said. ‘You oppress me with kindness, sir.”

— Georgette Heyer

85. “I don’t care! I’d rather walk all the way to London than stay here now!’ ‘It’s an engaging thought,’ said Stephen. ‘Orphan of the Storm.”

— Georgette Heyer

86. “I daresay Freddy might not be a great hand at slaying dragons, but you may depend upon it none of those knight-errants would be able to rescue one from a social fix, and you must own, Meg, that one has not the smallest need of a man who can kill dragons!”

— Georgette Heyer

87. “Dashed if I didn’t receive a letter from him this morning! Yes, and what’s more, I had to pay sixpence for it, which I’d as lief not have done. It ain’t that I grudge sixpence, but what I mean is, why the deuce should I have to give sixpence for a thing I’d as soon not have?”

— Georgette Heyer

88. “It chances that I’d a letter myself by today’s post, from Uncle Jonas Henry.′ He chuckled. ‘Seemingly he’s as throng as he can be, and a trifle hackled with me for loitering here. I shall have to post off to Huddersfield next week, sir – and a bear-garden jaw I’ll get when I arrive there, if I know Jonas Henry!”

— Georgette Heyer

89. “You assume a mighty lofty tone, to be sure –’‘No, no, it comes quite naturally,’ my lord interpolated sweetly. ‘I assume nothing; I am a positive child of nature, my dear sir. But you were saying?”

— Georgette Heyer

90. “Does it ever occur to you, Mama, that my grandfather is a lunatic?”

— Georgette Heyer

91. “Do let me assure you that if ever Endymion should ask me to give a ball in his honour I shall take steps to have him placed under restraint!”

— Georgette Heyer

92. “The society of my relatives can only be enjoyed with frequent intervals.”

— Georgette Heyer

93. “Yet, after all, Jenny thought she had been granted more than she hoped for when she married him. He did love her: differently, but perhaps more enduringly; and he had grown to depend on her. She thought that they would have many years of quiet content: never reaching the heights, but living together in comfort and deepening friendship.”

— Georgette Heyer

94. “It was strange how the dullest party could be enjoyed because there was one person present whose eyes could be met for the fraction of a second, in wordless appreciation of a joke unshared by others: almost as strange as the insipidity of parties at which that person was not present.”

— Georgette Heyer

95. “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

96. “I contrive,”’ said Prudence softly. ‘Do you know, sir, you puzzle me.’ ‘It has ever been my motto,’ the old gentleman pointed out triumphantly.”

— Georgette Heyer

97. “The Marquis believed himself to be hardened against flattery. He thought that he had experienced every variety, but he discovered that he was mistaken: the blatantly worshipful look in the eyes of a twelve-year-old, anxiously raised to his, was new to him, and it pierced his defences.”

— Georgette Heyer

98. “Eggs I must instantly have!” she announced. “And Lope de Vega I will not have, though in general a fine poet, but not in the kitchen!”

— Georgette Heyer

99. “As for Miss Merriville, Mr Trevor felt that she was very well able to take care of herself. He had been dazzled by her beautiful companion, but he retained a vague impression of a self-possessed female, with a slightly aquiline nose, and an air of friendly assurance. He did not think that she would be easily taken-in.”

— Georgette Heyer

100. “She thought that Fontley had suffered as much from a negligent mistress as from an improvident master.”

— Georgette Heyer