Regency Quotes

“He kissed her. Without warning, without permission. Without even deciding to do it, but simply because he couldn't have done anything else. He needed that breath she was holding. It belonged to him, and he wanted it back.”
― Tessa Dare, One Dance with a Duke

“Sometimes Hen...I think I would give my life just for one of your smiles.”
― Julia Quinn, Minx

“You are brave and loyal and true. You have such a good heart." He held my hand close to his chest and covered it with his other hand. "It is only afraid. But I would take such good care of it, love, if you would give it to me.”
― Julianne Donaldson, Blackmoore

“You are my one and only, for all eternity.”
― Vicky Dreiling, How to Marry a Duke

“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, The Grand Sophy

“How could you receive a member of the Male Sex in your bedroom, and in your dressing gown? Sir, I must request you to leave immediately!"

"You don't mean to tell me that's a dressing gown?" interrupted Mr Carlton, a dangerous gleam in his eyes." Well, it's by far the most elegant one I've ever been privileged to see, and I suppose I must have seen scores of 'em in my time- paid for them too!”
― Georgette Heyer

“How the deuce would you know the right way to go on if you was never taught anything but the wrong way?”
― Georgette Heyer, Cotillion

“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, Venetia

“But above all, above respect and esteem, there was a motive within her of good will which could not be overlooked. It was gratitude. -- Gratitude, not merely for having once loved her, but for loving her still well enough, to forgive all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and all the unjust accusations accompanying her rejection. He who, she had been persuaded, would avoid her as his greatest enemy, seemed, on this accidental meeting, most eager to preserve the acquaintance, and without any indelicate display of regard, or any peculiarity of manner, where their two selves only were concerned, was soliciting the good opinion of her friends, and bent on making her known to his sister.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“Oh, my dear, love isn't always the coup de foudre--the lightning strike. Sometimes it happens quietly, so quietly you may not even notice.”
― Julia Justiss, Convenient Proposal to the Lady

“I came up stairs into the world, for I was born in a cellar.”
― William Congreve

“If you have always suspected your sister of an inclination to madness, it will be my pleasure to confirm your worst fears.”
― Mary Balogh, The Temporary Wife / A Promise of Spring

“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, 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.”
― Georgette Heyer, Venetia

“I'll open no gates for you, my girl! You'll take any fence I take, and we'll clear it neck and neck!”
― Georgette Heyer, Bath Tangle

“She added on an explanatory note: 'He has eyes like a pig and his name is Joseph.'

'How shocking! One scarcely knows whether to feel pity or disgust.'

Miss Trent knew no such uncertainty. 'He is a hateful wretch!' she declared.”
― Georgette Heyer, Pistols For Two

“Entertaining females with accounts of jug-bitten maunderings is one of my favourite pastimes.”
― Georgette Heyer, Black Sheep

“Bustle about Noddy, or we shant be in time to snabble any of the lobster patties.”
― Georgette Heyer, Frederica

“In the hazy afternoon light through the windows he looked beautiful and dissolute, shirt open at the collar and streaks of golden hair falling into his eyes, like some Regency buck after a long night's dancing.”
― Tana French, The Likeness

“We women must look out for one another,' Lady Danbury said to no one in particular, 'since it is clear no one else will do so.”
― Julia Quinn, Romancing Mister Bridgerton

“One could easily mistake that softness for weakness, particularly when coupled with her shyness and blushes. He had done so. He’d thought she required guidance, polishing, perfecting.
But she hadn’t.
She didn’t.
James could see that now. Just as he’d seen evidence of her strength, her confidence, her conscience. Qualities that were as striking as her beauty.”
― Mimi Matthews, A Lady of Conscience

“For all the largesse of my mind’s colony where a vividly enflamed man would take off each of the precious stones and melt away the cast, his success ultimately lay in being nice to me, being nice to himself irrespective of the behavior of each; of being proud of me and of himself irrespective of worldly success; holding me in regard with an almost primitive sense of courage, irrespective of the purity of my body or spirit.”
― Noorilhuda, The Governess

“Deep inside, she knew who she was, and that person was smart and kind and often even funny, but somehow her personality always got lost somewhere between her heart and her mouth, and she found herself saying the wrong thing, or more often, nothing at all.”
― Julia Quinn, Romancing Mister Bridgerton

“How wonderful it was to feel love - even the one-sided sort - for a nice person. It made one feel so positively sensible.”
― Julia Quinn, Romancing Mister Bridgerton

“Lady Danbury: You are getting smart in your old age Mr. Bridgerton.

Colin: It has occasionally been remarked that I possessed a small modicum of intelligence in my youth, as well.

Lady Danbury: Hmmph. The important word in that sentence being 'small', of course.

Colin looked at Penelope through narrowed eyes. She appeared to be choking on laughter.”
― Julia Quinn, Romancing Mister Bridgerton

“The only interesting thing to do is read Whistledown,' said the nonblinking lady, as if Penelope had never even spoken.

The gentleman next to her murmured his assent.
And then Lady Danbury smiled.
Colin grew alarmed. The old lady had a look in her eye. A frightening look.

'I have an idea,' she said.
Someone gasped. Someone else groaned.”
― Julia Quinn, Romancing Mister Bridgerton

“St. Vincent took in the curious tableau before him . . . the clusters of bewildered onlookers, the affronted ‌innkeeper . . . and the Earl of Westcliff, who stared at him with avid bloodlust.

The entire inn fell silent during that chilling moment, so that Westcliff’s quiet snarl was clearly audible. “By God, I’m going to butcher you.”
― It Happened One Autumn: The Wallflowers by Lisa Kleypas

“Well you displayed so little anxiety about my being murdered," he said to her hotly, pride very much injured, "that I have a great mind not to tell you whether I was or not.”
― Sophie Irwin, A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting

“Naturally he underestimated her. He knew nothing about the strength of her convictions or about the lengths she was willing to go for a noble cause.”
― Mimi Matthews, A Lady of Conscience

“She was lovely, of course. But it wasn’t that which had beguiled him so thoroughly against his will -- against his self-interest and his reason. It was the softness of her. The tender gravity in her gaze, and the reticence in her manner.”
― Mimi Matthews, A Lady of Conscience