Julia Quinn Quotes

“She had been born for this man, and she had spent so many years trying to accept the fact that he had been born for someone else…”

“You always get more respect when you don't have a happy ending.”

“She hated that she was still so desperate for a glimpse of him, but it had been this way for years.”

“Happy endings are all I can do. I wouldn't know how to write anything else.”

“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.”

“If you want to know if a gentleman loves you,” her mother said, “there is only one true way to be sure.”
“It’s in his kiss,” her mother whispered. “It’s all there, in his kiss.”

“And I hope you will not think me foolish when I also extend my thanks.

Thank you, Michael, for letting my son love her first.

—from Janet Stirling, dowager Countess of Kilmartin, to Michael Stirling, Earl of Kilmartin”

“… I do not tell you often enough, dear Mother, how very grateful I am that I am yours. It is a rare parent
who would offer a child such latitude and understanding. It is an even rarer one who calls a daughter
friend. I do love you, dear Mama.”

“Mother,” Hyacinth said with a great show of solicitude,
“you know I love you dearly—”
“Why is it,” Violet pondered, “that I have come to expect
nothing good when I hear a sentence beginning in
that manner?”

“I can't imagine a romance novel published today where the hero rapes the heroine and she falls in love with him.”

“It's only through sheer force and luck that she's yet to take over the world.”

“There was a certain history to this. While heavily pregnant with Amelia, she had asked him if she was radiant or if she just looked like a waddling duck. He told her she’d looked like a radiant duck. This had not been the correct answer.”

“Men are sheep. Where one goes, the rest will soon follow.

-Lady Whistledown”

“To say that men can be bullheaded would be insulting to the bull.”

“Suddenly it was too hard to be in his presence, too painful to know that he would belong to someone else.”

“She'd met Colin on a Monday.
She'd kissed him on a Friday.
Twelve years later.
She sighed. It seemed fairly pathetic.”

“Before she knew what she was about, she was jumping about like a crazy woman, yelling, “Yes! Yes! I win!”

“You don’t win,” Anthony snapped.

“Oh, it feels like I’ve won,” she reveled.”

“You don't always have to kiss a lot of frogs to recognize a prince when you find one

-Henrietta Barett”

“And if you say that's because you lot barged into her home like a herd of mentally deficient sheep, I'm disowning all three of you.”

“I’m not certain you’d know the right sort of man for you if he arrived on our doorstep riding an elephant.”
“I would think the elephant would be a fairly good indication that I ought to look elsewhere.”

“Anthony sneezed and pushed them aside. "Mother, I am trying to have a conversation with the duke."

Violet looked at Simon. "Do you want to have this conversation with my son?"

"Not particularly."

"Fine, then. Anthony, be quiet.”

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

“Anthony looked down at his evil clutches -- hands, he reminded himself, hands -- and grinned anew.”

“In three days," he continued, "I will be your husband. I will take a solemn vow to protect you until death do us part. Do you understand what that means?"
"You'll save me from marauding minotaurs?”

“There were rules among friends, commandments, really, and the most important one was Thou Shalt Not Lust After Thy Friend's Sister.”

“Sometimes Hen… I think I would give my life just for one of your smiles.”

“Caroline, do you value your neck?"
"Yes, I'm rather fond of it. Why?"
"Because if you don't shut up, I'm going to wring it.”

“Men. The day they learned to admit to a mistake was the day they became women.”

“Do I look like a mess?” she asked.
He nodded. “But you’re my mess,” he whispered.”

“I have to tell you it was the first time even after all these years of expecting my own death that i truly knew what it meant to die because with you gone there was nothing left for me to live for.”

“In her heart she longed for this man, dreamed of a life that could never be.”

“My mother is convinced that yellow is a happy color and that a happy girl would get a husband.

-Penelope Featherington”

“Love is blind,” Harriet quipped.

“But not illiterate,” Elizabeth retorted.”

“He wondered if she'd mind if he threw her down on the blanket and tore off her clothing. (..) She looked heartbreakingly innocent. Alex sighed. She'd probably mind.”

“She tried to remind herself that beauty was only skin deep, but that didn't offer any helpful excuses when she was berating herself for never knowing what to say to people. There was nothing more depressing than an ugly girl with no personality.”

“Weakness never got anyone anywhere.”

“Tell me something wicked.”

“No. Haven’t you been listening?”

Marcus would always remember that moment. It was to be the first time he would ever be faced with that most vexing of female quirks: the question that had nothing but wrong answers.”

“Francesca: It's still a bit cold yet.
Michael: Never stopped John and me.
Francesca: Yes, well, you're Scottish. Your blood circulates quite well half frozen.”

“A duel, a duel, a duel. Is there anything more exciting, more romantic… or more utterly moronic?”

“I also think he is given to disguises… Sometimes he wears spectacles and sometimes he does not. And twice he has worn an extremely peculiar hat. Inside.”

“He shook his head in wonder. "You are magnificent."
"I keep telling everyone that," she said with a nonchalant shrug, "But you seem to be the only one to believe me.”

“This has to be the most self-centered thing I've ever said, but no, I think you just wanted to vex me.”

“Olivia: You didn't even know I was there!
Harry: Excuse me, yes I did.”

“He smiled, and suddenly she knew that his words were true. Everything would be all right. Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but soon. Tragedy couldn't coexist in a world with one of Colin's smiles.”

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

“To call that writing, madam, is an insult to quills and ink across the world.”

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

“I have thoroughly compromised your niece," Alex declared. "Will you plase insist that she marry me?"
Caroline didn't bat an eyelash. "This", she announced, "is most peculiar.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a married man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of an heir.”

“I didn't think I should die but I did not know how I would Live.”

“It was heaven. Forget angels, forget St. Peter and glittering harpsichords. Heaven was a dance in the arms of one's true love.”

“When a man writes a romance, the woman dies. When a woman writes one, it ends all tidy and sweet.”

“And for the rest of the night, he couldn’t quite forget the smell of her perfume. Or maybe it was the soft sound of her chuckle. Or maybe it was neither of those things. Maybe it was just her.”

“Why? It’s because I love you, damn me to hell. Because I’ve always loved you. Because I loved you when you were with John, and I loved you when I was in India, and God only knows I don’t deserve you, but I love you, anyway.”

“the unexpected moment [is] always sweeter.”

“He was the firstborn Bridgerton of a firstborn Bridgerton of a firstborn Bridgerton eight times over. He had a dynastic responsibility to be fruitful and multiply.”

“Blake took a small roll from the tray on the table, then put it back in favor of a larger one. And maybe a little butter. It certainly couldn't hurt. And jam… no, he drew the line at jam. She was a spy, after all.”

“This thing between them, this bond—it wasn’t just passion,
and it wasn’t wicked.
It was love, and it was divine.”

“Did you know I have always suspected that men were idiots," Daphne ground out, "but I was never positive until today.”

“You are not going to waltz in here and distract me with a clever phrase and a beguiling smile."
"You think my smile is beguiling?”