Top 300 Julia Quinn Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “Lucy could feel herself slipping, sliding into need, falling into a hazy place of love and desire where right was not quite identifiable from wrong.”

— Julia Quinn

152. “It’s bacon. How can anything in the world seem bleak when one is eating bacon?”

— Julia Quinn

153. “She tried to say something witty; she tried to say something seductive. But her bravado failed her at the last moment. She’d never been kissed before, and now that she had all but invited him to be the first, she didn’t know what to do. His fingers loosened slightly around her wrist, but then they tugged, pulling her along with him as he stepped behind a tall, elaborately carved hedge. He whispered her name, touched her cheek. Her eyes widened, lips parted. And in the end, it was inevitable.”

— Julia Quinn

154. “Every unmarried man is looking for a wife. They just don’t always know it.”

— Julia Quinn

155. “Is it possible to be so happy for one person and at the same time be so sad for oneself? “Only the most generous in spirit can manage it. The rest of us don’t know how to be happy for another when our own dreams have gone astray.”

— Julia Quinn

156. “Oh, go ahead and giggle,” Lady Danbury sighed. “I’ve found that the only way to avoid parental frustration is to view him as a source of amusement.”

— Julia Quinn

157. “It was not that he’d changed her; all of the seeds were already there. But with him, she grew.”

— Julia Quinn

158. “Stirlings of old had been so damned besotted with their newfound earldom that they couldn’t think to put any other name on anything... It was a wonder he didn’t drink Kilmartin Tea and sit on a Kilmartin-style chair. In fact, he probably would be doing just that if his grandmother had found a way to manage it without actually taking the family into trade.”

— Julia Quinn

159. “He rolled his eyes. Why was he surprised about anything having to do with her? Of course she’d be able to lift a large stone. She was Henry. She could probably lift him.”

— Julia Quinn

160. “No one knows as well as I how much nonsense is printed in books.”

— Julia Quinn

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161. “We’ve been through nothing, you ridiculous man, but I suppose you may call me Daphne nonetheless.” “Excellent.” He nodded in a condescending manner. “You may call me ’your grace.”

— Julia Quinn

162. “People are like fine wines. If they start off good, they only get better with age.”

— Julia Quinn

163. “Elizabeth, you resemble nothing so much as a hen trying to hatch a book.”

— Julia Quinn

164. “Colin was still working on his food, having somehow managed to charm the servants into bringing him a bowl of soup. He’d set down his spoon, though, and was presently examining his other hand, idly flexing each finger in turn, murmuring a word as each pointed out toward Phillip. “Miss. My. Wife.” “Bloody hell,” Phillip finally burst out. “If you’re going to break my legs, would you just go ahead and do it now?”

— Julia Quinn

165. “It was the one dream he’d never permitted himself to consider.”

— Julia Quinn

166. “This letter is for both of you. I am so glad you have each other. The world is a kinder place when one’s burdens can be shared.”

— Julia Quinn

167. “Baiting her was great fun. And he didn’t feel the least bit guilty for it. For all her disgruntled behavior, he had no doubt that she enjoyed the verbal sparring every bit as much as he did.”

— Julia Quinn

168. “Billie tried not to think of George. But she wasn’t successful. Like it or not, he was her who.”

— Julia Quinn

169. “It occurred to him that perhaps he ought not to have married a woman with such extraordinary eyes.”

— Julia Quinn

170. “She’d worn that color, or gray in its place, for three years now. And unrelenting black for a year before that. It had been a bit of a badge, she realized, a uniform of sorts. One never had to worry about who one was when one’s clothing proclaimed it so loudly.”

— Julia Quinn

171. “A man with charm is an entertaining thing, and a man with looks is, ofcourse, a sight to behold, but a man with honor – ah, he is the one, dear reader, to which young ladies should flock.”

— Julia Quinn

172. “But the duchess, God bless her, knew her role in life, and after a six-month recuperative period, she opened the connecting door between their bedrooms, and the duke once again commenced his quest for a son. Five.”

— Julia Quinn

173. “Watch over Honoria, will you? See that she doesn’t marry an idiot.”

— Julia Quinn

174. “Actually, I’m an excellent liar. But what I’m really good at is appearing appropriately sheepish and adorable after I’m caught.”

— Julia Quinn

175. “She needed him to be him. Even if he could not be hers.”

— Julia Quinn

176. “We are women. And the men who hold our fates hardly conceive that we have desires and dreams of our own. If we are ever to live the lives we want, we have to make them conceive it. Our bravery, the force of our will, shall be their proof.”

— Julia Quinn

177. “Bloody hell,” Phillip finally burst out. “If you’re going to break my legs, would you just go ahead and do it now?”

— Julia Quinn

178. “It was a damned good thing men couldn’t have children. Gregory took no shame in admitting that the human race would have died out generations earlier.”

— Julia Quinn

179. “Nothing like trapping the gentlemen where they couldn’t get away.”

— Julia Quinn

180. “Promise me,” she said. “You have to promise me than you will always be more happy than you are sorry.”

— Julia Quinn

181. “Why waste romance on a love that would never be returned?”

— Julia Quinn

182. “If he hadn’t married Iris, he’d want her for a friend.”

— Julia Quinn

183. “He didn’t know if there was a word to describe what he felt in that moment, how he saw the lines of his own heart when her eyes met his.”

— Julia Quinn

184. “Men, she thought with disgust, were interested only in those women who terrified them.”

— Julia Quinn

185. “Was the world populated with blind men, or merely stupid ones?”

— Julia Quinn

186. “You are the reason I exist,” she said softly, “the very reason I was born.”

— Julia Quinn

187. “And that was when she finally allowed herself to cry. Funny how she could hold herself together, keep it all inside until she saw him. But now that he was here, all she could do was bury her face in the warmth of his chest, snuggle closer as his arms wrapped around her. As if somehow he could make all her problems go away by his presence alone.”

— Julia Quinn

188. “They say that a smart person learns from her mistakes,” she interrupted, her voice forcefully ending his protest. “But a truly smart person learns from other people’s mistakes.”

— Julia Quinn

189. “But as they settled into their seats in the inn’s busy dining room, he looked at her across the table and it wasn’t her beauty he saw. It was her heart. And her soul. And he had a sinking feeling that his life was never going to be the same.”

— Julia Quinn

190. “He didn’t like her. He really didn’t, but by God, he’d have sold a piece of his soul right then to dance with her.”

— Julia Quinn

191. “George leaned to the right so that he could see her from behind his brother. “Shall I strangle him or will you?” She rewarded him with a devious smile. “Oh, it must be a joint endeavor, don’t you think?” “So that you may share the blame?” Andrew quipped. “So that we may share the joy,” Billie corrected. “You wound me.” “Happily, I assure you.”

— Julia Quinn

192. “But it does feed a strange longing to touch a dew-dampened lawn, or feel a cool mist on one’s face, or even to remember the joy of a perfect day after a week of rain.”

— Julia Quinn

193. “James started to laugh. His chin hurt where she’d smacked him twice, his foot throbbed where she’d stepped on it, and his entire body felt as if he’d swum through a rosebush, which wasn’t as far off the truth as it sounded. Yet still he started to laugh.”

— Julia Quinn

194. “He touched her cheek, and he looked into her eyes. He saw his whole world there.”

— Julia Quinn

195. “He was a puzzle. And Hyacinth hated puzzles. Well, no, in truth she loved them. Provided, of course, that she solved them.”

— Julia Quinn

196. “A person should read a book because it speaks to something in his heart.”

— Julia Quinn

197. “You married into the family. You have to love me. It’s a contractual obligation.”

— Julia Quinn

198. “I was told once that the most important part of a fight is making sure your opponent looks worse than you do when you’re through.”

— Julia Quinn

199. “Never,” he spat out, “kick a man who is pointing a gun at you.”

— Julia Quinn

200. “Where is he?” Violet demanded without preamble. “My husband, I presume?” “No, your great-uncle Edmund,” Violet practically snapped. “Of course I mean your husband.”

— Julia Quinn