Top 250 Georgette Heyer Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “Don’t waste a thought on any of the eligible suitors you’ve found for me, dear ma’am! There is more of mama in me than you have the least idea of, and the only eligible husband for me is a rake!”

— Georgette Heyer

152. “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

153. “No, he was not as handsome as poor Wrotham, whose dark, stormy beauty troubled her dreams a little. Wrotham was a romantic figure, particularly when his black locks were disheveled through his clutching them in despair.”

— Georgette Heyer

154. “Perhaps Charis did not realize that when one had passed through a time of terrible anxiety relief did not immediately restore the tone of one’s mind. To be sure, she herself had not expected that after the first raptures she would find herself subject to fits of dejection, and much inclined to be crotchety; but still Charis should have known better than to have enacted a tragical scene within an hour of her arrival.”

— Georgette Heyer

155. “Lord, if we were all to marry our first loves what a plague of ill-assorted marriages there would be!”

— Georgette Heyer

156. “He is clearly unhinging.”

— Georgette Heyer

157. “Don’t worry. Chivalry has practically no appeal for me whatsoever. – Neville Fletcher.”

— Georgette Heyer

158. “Yes, but we do not know that he snores, my love,’ Lady Ombersley pointed out. ‘Indeed, we may be almost certain that he does not, for his manners are so very gentleman-like!’ ‘A man who would contract the mumps,’ declared Cecilia, ’would do anything!”

— Georgette Heyer

159. “The landlord was trying to explain that there were a great many English people in his house, all fighting duels or having hysterics.”

— Georgette Heyer

160. “Ten or twelve couples? No, no, Dassett would not be talking of red carpets and awnings for such a paltry affair as that!’ said his lordship. These ominous words struck a chill into his wife’s soul.”

— Georgette Heyer

161. “Well, have you a tongue in your head?’ ‘I have,’ responded Hugo, ‘but I was never one to give my head for washing.’ ‘You’re not such a fool as you look,’ commented his lordship.”

— Georgette Heyer

162. “I hope you mean to contribute a handsome wreath to my obsequies?’ ‘Certainly! In the nature of things, it is likely that you will predecease me.’ ‘If I survive this adventure there can be no question of that. Your fate is writ clear: you will be murdered. I cannot conceive how it comes about that you were not murdered long since!’ ‘How odd! Charles himself once said that to me, or something like it!’ ‘There is nothing odd in it: any sensible man must say it!”

— Georgette Heyer

163. “She contrived, without precisely making so vulgar a boast, to convey the impression that she was escaping from courtships so persistent as to amount to persecution; and Mr Beaumaris, listening with intense pleasure, said that London was the very place for anyone desirous of escaping attention.”

— Georgette Heyer

164. “As for the fan, she agreed that it was a most amusing trifle: just what she would wish to buy for herself, if it had not been so excessively ugly!”

— Georgette Heyer

165. “He paused and then said, as though the words were wrung out of him: ‘O God, Mama, I’ve made such a mull of it! What am I to do?”

— Georgette Heyer

166. “To listen to a poet arguing with himself – for she could scarcely have been said to have borne any part in the discussion – on the merits of blank verse as a dramatic medium was naturally a privilege of which any young lady must be proud, but there could be no denying that to talk for half an hour to a man who listened with interest to anything she said was, if not precisely a relief, certainly a welcome variation in her life.”

— Georgette Heyer

167. “Lady Theresa prophesied disaster for all concerned, and hoped that when Serena was dying an old maid she would remember these words, and be sorry. Meanwhile she remained her affectionate aunt.”

— Georgette Heyer

168. “Do you know, it has of late become an ambition of mine to hear my name on your lips instead of my title.”

— Georgette Heyer

169. “His lordship detested independently-minded subordinates. It was not the business of his officers to think for themselves.”

— Georgette Heyer

170. “Tiffany never consciously deviated from the truth, but since she saw everything only as it affected herself the truth was apt to become somewhat distorted.”

— Georgette Heyer

171. “What a nonsensical thing it would be in me to allow myself to become alarmed by a trifle such as murder!”

— Georgette Heyer

172. “I’m beginning to wish you had to work for a living.”

— Georgette Heyer

173. “My lord, when I first encountered you the suspicion crossed my mind that your intellect was disordered. I am now certain that this is so!”

— Georgette Heyer

174. “The Duke looked at him sardonically. ‘I am not in the least interested in your emotions, Vidal. What I object to is that you have had the impertinence to disturb your mother. That I do not permit. You will leave England at once.”

— Georgette Heyer

175. “He soon discovered that what Arabella lacked in inches she more than made up for in spirit. She tore his character to shreds and warned him of his ultimate fate.”

— Georgette Heyer

176. “It was incomprehensible to her that anyone should be amused by such a circumstance, but both Gilly and Gideon plainly thought it excessively funny, so she smiled dutifully, realizing the truth of her mama’s dictum, that there was never any knowing what stupidities men would find diverting.”

— Georgette Heyer

177. “Dear Edward has given Fanny a chocolate-coloured coach with pale blue cushions. The wheat is picked out in blue.” He held the sheet at arm’s length. “It seems strange, but no doubt Fanny is right. I have not been in England for such a time... Ah, I beg her pardon. You will be relieved to hear, my dear Hugh, that the wheat still grows as it ever did. The wheels are picked out in blue.”

— Georgette Heyer

178. “I daresay you know how it is when one falls into a fit of the dismals; one says things one doesn’t mean.”

— Georgette Heyer

179. “You must never marry. Don’t, I do earnestly beg of you, allow yourself to be taken in by any lure thrown out to you! You cannot hope to find a lady who will like you better than you like yourself.”

— Georgette Heyer

180. “It had survive both separation and divulging interests.”

— Georgette Heyer

181. “You are too romantic! We have been dwelling in Arcadia my green girl: the rest of the world is not so golden as this retired spot. Only in fantasy does every circumstance conspire to make it inevitable that two people should fall in love! We should hardly have been more isolated had be been cast on a desert island together.”

— Georgette Heyer

182. “It’s my belief, Kit, the woman’s touched in her upper works.’ ‘No, she is merely addicted to poetry,’ explained Kitty.”

— Georgette Heyer

183. “It is the tyranny of the weak, isn’t it? The weapons being tears, reproaches, vapours, and other such unscrupulous means which are employed by gentle, helpless women like your aunt!”

— Georgette Heyer

184. “It is dreadfully tedious to be obliged to listen to poetry, even when it has been composed in one’s honour. But in another– oh, Kit, you won’t understand, but to be three- and- forty, and still be able to attach foolish boys, is such a comfort!”

— Georgette Heyer

185. “Well, it was sufficient to explain it all to me,’ Carlyon admitted. ‘Once a performing bear had entered Nicky’s orbit the rest was inevitable.”

— Georgette Heyer

186. “It’s awful, isn’t it?’ ‘Yes. The worst fight I ever was in.’ ‘Well, I’m glad I was in it, anyway. To tell you the truth, I haven’t liked it as much as I thought I should. It’s seeing one’s friends go, one after the other, and being so hellish frightened oneself.”

— Georgette Heyer

187. “My dear sir, I wish you will give me leave to address your daughter at once!’ said the Earl, quite entranced by this sudden and unexpected declaration of war on the part of his chosen bride.”

— Georgette Heyer

188. “Yes, you may laugh, but you have no experience of such matters. I assure you, the instant you begin to practise economy you will find yourself spending far more than ever you did before you embarked on such a ruinous course!”

— Georgette Heyer

189. “He lived in Half-Moon Street. His house was ruled by his cook, the wife of Moggat, his valet-footman. She also ruled the hapless Moggat. Moggat retaliated by ruling his jovial master as far as he was able, so one might really say Mrs. Moggat ruled them all. As Tom was quite unaware of this fact, it troubled him not a whit.”

— Georgette Heyer

190. “There is a corpse somewhere on the road to town. Mr Fox does not wish it there. Remove it!”

— Georgette Heyer

191. “But the very qualities which had fascinated Denville in the girl offended him in the wife...”

— Georgette Heyer

192. “Then you,’ said Sophy, ‘are Lord Charlbury!’ He bowed. ‘I am, and I perceive that my fame has gone before me. I own, I should not have chosen to figure in your mind as the man with mumps, but so, I see, it is!”

— Georgette Heyer

193. “The Rector, coming into the room and learning what was the subject under discussion, said that since the world began each generation had condemned the manners and customs of the next.”

— Georgette Heyer

194. “My Lord Bedlington had not kept company with the Regent for years without acquiring a hard head and the digestion of an ostrich. Mellow he might become, and indiscreet stories he certainly told, but not his worst enemy would have accused him of being foxed.”

— Georgette Heyer

195. “Wrotham had been inspired at the eleventh hour to send the flowers with the second of his messages in place of the first. Wear these, and I shall know what to think, ran the inscription on his lordship’s card. This was going too fast for Miss Milborne, who felt that until she herself knew what to think it would be better for his lordship to remain in his present uninformed state.”

— Georgette Heyer

196. “Perhaps, if she could be busy all the time, as she meant to be, she might not feel so unhappy; perhaps, in household cares, she could forget her love, or grow at least accustomed to desolation.”

— Georgette Heyer

197. “Lord Biddenden’s instincts were patriarchal. He liked to see his brothers and sisters under his roof, and to feel that they depended upon him for guidance; and he was almost as anxious for their advancement as his own.”

— Georgette Heyer

198. “Later, when she appeared before him in the sea-green gauze, he stared at her in great surprise, and said: By Jove, he had never thought she could look so well! Encouraged by this tribute, Hero showed him a cloak of green sarsnet trimmed with swansdown, which she had purchased that morning, and upon his expressing his unqualified approval of this garment, confided, a little nervously, that she feared he might, when he came to see the bill, think it a trifle dear.”

— Georgette Heyer

199. “And although she did, when shown the impropriety of her behaviour, say she was sorry to have made a scene in public, it was evident that she was not in the least penitent.”

— Georgette Heyer

200. “He’s bookish,’ explained Sir Ralph, torn between pride in his son’s scholastic attainments and the horrid fear that he had fathered a miscreature. ‘Worst seat in the county! But there! No accounting for tastes, eh? Take my daughter, Lizzie! Never opened a book in her life, but rides with a light hand and an easy bit, and handles the reins in form.”

— Georgette Heyer