Top 250 Georgette Heyer Quotes (2024 Update)
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201. “Does it matter what I know? It is what Cleone knows, but there’s naught under the sun so unreasonable as a maid in love.”

— Georgette Heyer

202. “Oh, yes, well, if he must shoot highwaymen, it’s very well, but to leave the poor man dead on the road – though I make no doubt he would have done the same to Vidal, for I believe they are horridly callous, these fellows – but that’s neither here nor there. Vidal had no right to leave him. Now people will say that he is wickedly blood-thirsty, or something disagreeable, and it is quite true, only one does not want the whole world to say so.”

— Georgette Heyer

203. “Me, I am not a lady,′ announced her grace. ‘I have been very well educated, and I will drink port.”

— Georgette Heyer

204. “He seems an agreeable creature. But that is how it is always! The less eligible a man is the more delightful he is bound to be! You may depend upon it.”

— Georgette Heyer

205. “Nicky beguiled the morning by taking Bouncer to a neighbouring farm, and engaging in a rat-hunt which might have been more successful had not Bouncer jumped to an over-hasty conclusion that his first duty was to rid the world of the flea-ridden terrier who should have assisted him in his work of destroying all the rats in the big barn.”

— Georgette Heyer

206. “Ulysses, stop scratching! Do try to be a little more worthy of me!”

— Georgette Heyer

207. “He did not want middle-aged men with distinguished records with him: they could be better employed elsewhere, and would, moreover, have bored him. He wanted polished young men of good families, who were of his own world, who knew how to make themselves pleasant in exalted circles, and could amuse his leisure moments with their adventures, and their fun, and their bubbling energy.”

— Georgette Heyer

208. “He was clearly a person of affluence, if not of taste.”

— Georgette Heyer

209. “Nothing he wore was designed to attract attention, but he made every other man in the room look either a trifle overdressed or a trifle shabby.”

— Georgette Heyer

210. “Tiffany?’ exclaimed Mrs Underhill incredulously. ‘Why, she’s got no more notion of propriety than the kitchen cat!”

— Georgette Heyer

211. “Very bad business,’ said Mr Wychbold. ‘Nothing to be done, though.’ ‘That,’ said Sophy severely, ’is what people always say when they are too lazy, or perhaps too timorous, to make a push to be helpful!”

— Georgette Heyer

212. “Wolf was Felicity’s Alsatian. When fetched from the stables he evinced his satisfaction by bounding around his mistress and barking madly for the first hundred yards of their walk. Exercising him was not, as Frank knew from experience, all joy, as he was not in the least amenable to discipline, had to be caught and held at the approach of any motor vehicle, and had a habit of plunging unadvisedly into quarrels with others of the canine race.”

— Georgette Heyer

213. “His household was presided over by his sister, a colourless woman, prone to tears, which perhaps accounted for the fact of his lordship’s being so seldom to be found at home.”

— Georgette Heyer

214. “There was nothing romantic about Miss Charing’s appearance, but her entrance would not have shamed a Siddons. “You,” she uttered in accents of loathing. “I might have known it!”

— Georgette Heyer

215. “Few things are more boring than fruitless arguments!”

— Georgette Heyer

216. “I think the hardest thing of all is to be wise in our dealings with the people we love,’ he said. ‘I know I have found it so.”

— Georgette Heyer

217. “Ned! if you don’t tell me, it will be quite shameful of you! You always know everything!’‘Yes, Nicky, but you think I know everything because I never tell you anything I am not quite certain of,’ Carlyon replied, looking back at him with his faint smile. ‘What a sad blow it would be to my vanity if you found I could be just as easily mistaken as anyone else! You must let me keep my own counsel until I am certain.”

— Georgette Heyer

218. “And as for the tulips, I know several, and they would not do for me at all. Besides, they are not romantic, because they have to think so much about their cravats and their coats and the size of their buttons that they have no time for anything besides. The most truly romantic man I know does not give a fig for what he may look like. It would not do for everyone to be so careless, of course, but he is so extremely handsome that it don’t signify a scrap.”

— Georgette Heyer

219. “That Hugh’s presence within walking distance of Biddenden Manor might not be conducive either to his happiness or to his self-esteem he did not allow to weigh with him, for he was a man with a strong sense of propriety, and he knew that it was his duty to feel affection for all his brothers and sisters.”

— Georgette Heyer

220. “I have not always appeared to be sensible of the care you have bestowed on me, but I know now that it has been unceasing.”

— Georgette Heyer

221. “The servants were letting down the steps of the two coaches, and in another instant Miss Morville’s worst fears were realized: Lord and Lady Grampound had brought their interesting offspring with them to Stanyon.”

— Georgette Heyer

222. “She could scarcely help admiring his appearance, but she had not fallen in love with his face, or his figure, and certainly not with his air of elegance. He had considerable charm of manner, but she decided that it was not that either. She thought it might be the humour that lurked in his eyes, or perhaps his smile.”

— Georgette Heyer

223. “I doubt it.” My lord smiled insufferably.”

— Georgette Heyer

224. “Bill was sniffing suspiciously at Tucker’s ankles. Tucker made propitiating noises and wondered why the young lady couldn’t have had a nice little Pekingese. He advanced a nervous hand towards bill, assuring him that he was a good dog. Bill was more interested in trying to assert whether he was a good man. He came to the conclusion that no steps need at the moment be taken to evict the constable and went off again to continue operations in the back garden.”

— Georgette Heyer

225. “I could never fancy any other female. Never shall! That’s why you see me now, a lonely man, with no one to care for, and no one to care a straw for me!’ As he presented the appearance of a comfortable hedonist, Kit was bereft of words.”

— Georgette Heyer

226. “She laughed. ‘I hope he will enjoy good sport– though my small experience informs me that catching fish is not necessary for your true angler’s enjoyment.’ ‘Oh, no! But to lose a fish is quite another matter!’ ‘Certainly! One cannot wonder that it should cast even the most cheerful person into gloom, for it is always such an enormous one that escapes!’ ‘I begin to think you are yourself an angler, ma’am: you are so exactly right!”

— Georgette Heyer

227. “My lord consigned the doctor and his words of wisdom to a place of great heat.”

— Georgette Heyer

228. “And I am very uncomfortable in these clothes. I think too that I am a little frightened. There is not even M. Davenant left. I shall be forced to eat pudding, and that woman will kiss me.’ She heaved a large sigh. ‘Life is very hard,’ she remarked sadly.”

— Georgette Heyer

229. “Providence has decreed that he should succeed to his dear father’s honours,’ pronounced the Dowager, thinking poorly of Providence.”

— Georgette Heyer

230. “I hardly dare open my mouth,” drawled Gideon, “but there is much in what he says, Gaywood. I don’t reckon myself a mean shot, but I would think twice before I engaged in pistol-play with Sale. And you won’t hit him you know. He is such a little fellow, and you are such a damnably bad shot!”

— Georgette Heyer

231. “Dear Papa, it seemed, had not left his family in affluent circumstances; but he had certainly endowed them with good looks, a commodity in which they had been bred from earliest youth to trade to the best advantage.”

— Georgette Heyer

232. “But time was slipping away; in another minute it would be too late; and urgency acted not as a spur but as a creeping paralysis which clogged the mind, and weighted the tongue, and imposed on desperation a blanket of numb stupidity.”

— Georgette Heyer

233. “But as for Thaddeus Drybeck, words fail me!’ The Inspector, placing no dependence on this statement, waited for her to continue.”

— Georgette Heyer

234. “True it is, miss, though I blush to say it! With his own eyes did Totton see him!’‘He could hardly have seen him with anyone else’s eyes!’ snapped Miss Trent, her temper fraying.”

— Georgette Heyer

235. “You’re surely not going to tell me that eels find you more entertaining than I do?’ he said incredulously.”

— Georgette Heyer

236. “Your presence in England is extremely – shall we say enlivening? – Vidal. But I believe I shall survive the loss of it.”

— Georgette Heyer

237. “Would you believe it? – the instant she clapped eyes on me, she said that she saw I had taken to dyeing my hair! I was never more shocked, for it is quite untrue! It is not dyeing one’s hair merely to restore its colour when it begins to fade a little! I denied it, of course, but all she did was to give the horridest laugh, which made me feel ready to sink, as you may suppose!”

— Georgette Heyer

238. “For himself, Sir Waldo was resigned to an evening’s boredom, denied even the amusement of pursuing his acquaintance with the lady who disapproved of him.”

— Georgette Heyer

239. “Only if one was very cruel did one laugh at a boy in the throes of his first love.”

— Georgette Heyer

240. “Do you like pets better than toys and books? I always did, so I thought very likely you would too.”

— Georgette Heyer

241. “It seemed to him that Serena brought light into a sunless room, and it never occurred to him that anyone could find it too strong.”

— Georgette Heyer

242. “Let me tell you, Mr Grantham, that there would have been more hope of winning my consent to your suit if you had come here to quarrel with me!′ said Ravenscar cuttingly. ‘When my sister marries it will be to someone with more spirit in him! Why, you comtemtible little worm, if you had a spark of pride or courage you would be calling me out, not offering to set me free! Your sister is worth a dozen of you! And she’s a Jade!”

— Georgette Heyer

243. “It is high time you realised that you are of age, and may do as you please. Now, be off, and don’t neglect to change your stockings!”

— Georgette Heyer

244. “You were not acquainted with my father, Mr Morville. I have often been sorry that you were not, for you would have been excessively pleased with one another. My father was a great reader, though not, of course, during the hunting-season.”

— Georgette Heyer

245. “Help a smuggler!’ said Miss Thane in shocked accents. ‘My good man, do you know that you are addressing the sister of a Justice of the Peace? Let me tell you that my brother, who is in the house at this moment, holds the strongest views on smugglers and smuggled goods!’ This, after all, she reflected, was quite true, and ought to impress the Exciseman – provided, of course, that Sir Hugh did not take it into his head to appear suddenly and explain the nature of his views.”

— Georgette Heyer

246. “An acrimonious dispute between Leslie and Buckingham caused the King to remark to the Lord Talbot somewhat bitterly that although he could not get Leslie’s horse to stand by him against the enemy, it seemed that he could not get rid of them now, when he had a mind to it.”

— Georgette Heyer

247. “Lady Sheringham, having provided herself with a smelling-bottle to fortify her nerves during an interview with her only child, removed the stopper and inhaled feebly. ‘I am sure I do not know what would become of me if I had not my good brother to support me in my lonely state,’ she said, in the faint, complaining tone which so admirably concealed a constitution of iron and a strong determination to have her own way.”

— Georgette Heyer

248. “But he has been telling me about his scheme to furbish up the Dower House if you should not dislike it – and I can’t think why you should, dearest, for he says the ghost is nothing more than Spurstow, trying to keep everyone away, which wouldn’t surprise me in the least, for I always disliked that man, and even if there is a ghost, it cannot possibly be more disagreeable to live with than your grandfather!”

— Georgette Heyer

249. “He had expected to have been received, if not with gratification, at least with pleasure: it had been a piece of condescension on the part of the head of the family to have visited its reprobate, but the reprobate was apparently unaware of this.”

— Georgette Heyer

250. “I may be a little fool,’ retorted Miss Challoner, plucking up spirit, ’but at least I meant it for the best. While as for you, my lord, you meant nothing but wicked mischief right from the start.”

— Georgette Heyer