Marquess Quotes & Sayings

The best work in the world was always done by members of the aristocracy. — George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon Of Kedleston

The journalist, whose main duty is speed, is likely sometimes to get an advantage over the diplomatist whose main object is accuracy. — George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon Of Kedleston

Chris Smith is openly gay and I think Peter Mandelson is certainly gay. — John Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess Of Aberdeen And Temair

An utter success,' her stepdaughters confided to
Margaret as they prepared to take their leave. 'The handsome king! That spoof!' Still the rain persisted, and the bishop had lost his hat. Maids danced in and out. Where was the bishop's hat? Alone at the window, Margaret didn't hear. The reflection of the parlor was yellow and warm. She watched it empty out. Then, an interruption. A voice came at her side: 'What do you look at with such interest, Lady Cavendish?' What did she see in the glass? She saw the Marchioness of Newcastle. She saw the aging wife of an aged marquess, without even any children to dignify her life. — Danielle Dutton

There are things in this world," she said steadily, still holding Zane's eyes, "that defy easy words. There are things in this world worth protecting, fragile things, secret things. Things that would do great harm should they ever be handled carelessly."
"Rue." The marquess loomed just beyond her.
"Things like magic." She touched a finger to Zane's cheek, a shock of warmth. "Things like love."

-Rue, Zane, & Kit — Shana Abe

Being civilized meant knowing about the right things. However much people pretend that doesn't matter, it's true. Disclaiming that is as foolish as thinking that beauty doesn't matter. And to get among the right things, you have to be among the people who possess them. Since one also likes to be thorough, knowing the difference between a hereditary and an honorary marquess always comes in handy. — L.S. Hilton

Planted firmly across the path of change, operating warily, shrewdly yet with passionate conviction in defence of the existing order, was a peer who was Chancellor of Oxford University for life, had twice held the India Office, twice the Foreign Office and was now Prime Minister for the third time. He was Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord Salisbury, ninth Earl and third Marquess of his line. — Barbara W. Tuchman

There you have the definition of being human: we don't want new things, we want things that feel new. — James Marquess

It is one of the misfortunes of our political system that parties are formed more with reference to controversies that are gone by than to the controversies which these parties have actually to decide. — Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess Of Salisbury

I can never remember my dreams," said the shadow of the Marquess quietly.
"You must have had rich, tasty ones then. When you can't remember a dream, it's because a Baku ate it. — Catherynne M Valente

Don't complain it's too cold now if you also intend to whine about how hot it is when summer comes. It's just hypocritical. — James Marquess

Industry cannot flow unless cpaital is confident, and capital will not be confident as long as it fears that Parliament will meddle with it and walk off with its profits. — Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess Of Salisbury

I'm a monster," said the shadow of the Marquess suddenly. "Everyone says so."
The Minotaur glanced up at her. "So are we all, dear," said the Minotaur kindly. "The thing to decide is what kind of monster to be. The kind who builds towns or the kind who breaks them. — Catherynne M Valente

Shut up," hissed the Marquess. "I chose it, you miserable, rouged-up idiots! Why shouldn't I have a boy's title? People listen to boys! They fear boys - they fear a King and hope a Queen will show them mercy! Why shouldn't I be a Marquess? I rule the world! I say how things are pronounced! I say what belongs to boys and what doesn't! — Catherynne M Valente

The sense of ultimate truth is the intellectual counterpart of the esthetic sense of perfect beauty, or the moral sense of perfect good. — George Savile, 1st Marquess Of Halifax

I am the kind of person who has many secrets. — James Marquess

And then she was looking up into the deep-set, dark eyes of the Marquess of Rockley. — Colleen Gleason

At the embassy for supper - quail in broth and oysters - Lady Browne remembered my father, whom she'd met at Queen Elizabeth's court. Yet one name only was on the tongue of Sir Richard: William Cavendish, newly made marquess. This gentleman, he reported between oysters, had recently fled to Hamburg after losing badly with a regiment raised near York. A master horseman and fencer, and one of the richest men in England, he wrote plays - oyster - collected viols - oyster - "his particular love in music" - and was by all accounts - oyster - affable and quick. — Danielle Dutton

Good God!" Avery gasped at the bloody wound on Lucien's head and Cedric's grief-stricken expression.
"You were dueling?" Sir John growled. "Fools."
He relieved Lawrence of Lucien's feet to help carry the unconscious Marquess up the stairs to an empty bedroom.
The second Lucien was on the bed Lady Rochester burst into the room, fire in her eyes. "Is he dead?" she asked, panic creeping into her.
"The blow glanced his skull," Lawrence said. "He may still live."
"May? Oh, he will not die. I want to kill him myself and he will not deny me that."

-His Wicked Seduction — Lauren Smith

The daughter of a marquess does not charge out of a ballroom. The daughter of a marquess does not abandon her partner in the middle of a dance.
The daughter of a marquess does not hunt faeries.
- The Falconer — Elizabeth May

I forbid you from frequenting taverns, public houses, or other establishments of vice."
She snorted in amusement. "Establishments of vice? That's a rather puritanical view of things, isn't it? I assure you, I was quite safe."
"You were with Ralston!" he said, as though she were simpleminded.
"He was perfectly respectable," she said, the words coming out before she remembered that the carriage ride home was anything but respectable.
"Imagine - my sister and the Marquess of Ralston together. And he turns out to be the respectable one," Benedick said wryly, sending heat flaring on Callie's cheeks, but not for the reason he thought. "No more taverns. — Sarah MacLean

True love shouldn't be something you answer with a simple yes or no, but something that grows inside of you and is undeniably true. — James Marquess

Life is so easy when you are young and have nothing to lose. — James Marquess

Kit opened his eyes.
"Where is she?"
The voice was high and thin and directly by his left ear-also the location of the blade pressed up hard against his jawline.
"Where is she?" the voice demanded again, whispery words nearly spilling over one another in fury. "Tell me, you bastard! I'll kill you!"
Options flitted through his mind: this person was small, this person was young, it smelled like an urchin, the blade felt like a dagger or dirk. He could break its arm or its neck, he could Turn and crush it from behind or more simply rip off its head-and the only thing that kept his body motionless in the bed was the realization that the creature was obviously speaking of Rue.
"Zane," she said then, a single word that broke like a calm dream through the chamber. "Please do not kill the Marquess of Langford."
-Zane, Kit, & Rue — Shana Abe

Doing the right thing often resulted in living the wrong thing forever.
-Christian, Marquess of Eastrerbrook — Madeline Hunter

Shocked at this rebuke, Sarah took a step backward. "But I ... I am the daughter of a marquess. I cannot marry either - "
"You are new here, so I will explain. In this land, nobility comes not from one's fathers or a title or from the land one owns, but from one's actions." His voice was hard-edged, and his words seemed harsh to her. "The MacKinnon brothers are the highest nobility to those who live on the frontier - true warriors, men who know how to fight and survive, men who put the lives of others before their own. Your family's wealth, your title, your virtue - they mean nothing out here. They won't fill your belly, and they won't keep you alive. What matters most right now is your survival. — Pamela Clare

The Marquess laughed her knife-like laugh again. "Do you think Fairyland loves you? That it will keep you close and dear, because you are a good girl and I am not? Fairyland loves no one. It has no heart. It doesn't care. It will spit you back out just like it did me. — Catherynne M Valente

Don't feel embarrassed," she said. "It's acceptable to lose the flow of conversation. Not everyone is clever enough to think of something to say immediately." Bradenton's lips thinned. "And you're a marquess," she added. "Maybe there are deficiencies in your understanding, but nobody will ever notice them so long as you make absolutely certain to introduce yourself as a marquess first. — Courtney Milan

Whether you like it or not, we are your blood."
"Half my blood."
"Aye," agreed the marquess, sober. "Although 'twould seem you've gotten the better half by far. All beauty, none of the beast."
She blinked at that, crossed her arms.
"How charming! Had you planned that for long?"
"Only since this morning." He shrugged, unabashed. "I'll do better in London."
"Please, don't bother."
"I'm afraid I cant help myself. I'm charming by nature. — Shana Abe

I really think that the Liberal Party is dead and that one will simply have to think of men and policies after the war - not of parties. — John Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess Of Aberdeen And Temair

Well done, brother," Nick said. "If only the ton knew that you have such an inflated sense of familial obligation... your reputation as a fallen angel would be shattered."
"You would do well to stop talking."
"Truly, it's heartwarming. The Marquess of Ralston, in all his wickedness. Laid low by a child. — Sarah MacLean

Everyone was staring at
them, and for that reason she forced herself to smile and to act as though it was nothing at all to
be dragged across the room by a man she'd only just met. When she heard one woman whisper in
a loud voice that she and the Marquess made a striking couple, she lost her smile. Yes, she did
feel like hitting Lyon, but it was certainly uncomplimentary of the woman to make such a
remark. — Julie Garwood

It may be true that every necessary war must also really be a just war; but it does not absolutely follow that every just war is a necessary war. — John Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess Of Aberdeen And Temair

There is humanity before the great Remy Johnson and humanity after it, I never asked for that sort of greatness. — James Marquess

Very well." The Red Wind shrugged, turning the pistol handles toward her. It didn't matter a whit to the Wind who did the deed, as long as it was done. She seemed to look at September fully for the first time. "You know, I do believe that's my coat," she mused. "And that is most certainly my cat."
Iago roared - a roar of love and remembering and recognition and regret. He did not leave the Marquess's side, but the roar said that he was sorry about it. — Catherynne M Valente

The marquess lifted his palm to her, a man held in wind-tousled grace, waiting; still as the eye of a tempest was still, inexorable force only momentarily at bay. The heels of his shoes rested at the very, very edge of the rooftop. If the wind changed, if he lost his balance-
Beyond him were only trees and sky, the dark-misted storm sweeping emerald hills up to heaven.
"You are mad," Rue said again, but she found herself moving toward him. His fingers closed over hers; he raised her hand to his mouth and held it there, warming her skin with his.
"I prefer the word dashing.'
She huffed a breath, almost a laugh.
"Oh, and one more thing." Above their locked fingers he granted her a new smile, this one slow and blazingly sensual. "Little brown-haired girl ... I did notice you."
He Turned to smoke.
-Rue & Kit — Shana Abe

The best party is but a kind of conspiracy against the rest of the nation. — George Savile, 1st Marquess Of Halifax

India has left a deeper mark upon the history the philosophy and the religion of mankind than any other terrestrial unit in the universe. — George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon Of Kedleston

Is the great Marquess of Ralston afraid of what might happen if he takes such a risk? The same man who once compromised a Prussian princess in Hyde Park?"
He blinked. "I did no such thing."
Callie couldn't help the little smile that flashed. "Ah, so we finally discover a legend that is not grounded in reality. — Sarah MacLean

Everyone is afraid of you and when folk are afraid of a person it usually means the person is cruel in some way, and I think you are cruel, Miss Marquess, but please don't punish me for saying it. I think you know you're cruel. I think you like being cruel. I think calling you cruel is the same as calling someone else kind. And I don't want to run errands for someone cruel. — Catherynne M Valente

Of course not. No one is chosen. Not ever. Not in the real world. You chose to climb out of your window and ride on a leopard. You chose to get a witch's Spoon back, and to make friends with a wyvern. You chose to trade your shadow for a child's life. You chose not to let the Marquess hurt your friend
you chose to smash her cages! You chose to face your own Death, not to balk at a great sea to cross and no ship to cross it in. And twice now you have chosen not to go home when you might have, if only you abandoned your friends. You are not the chosen one, September. Fairyland did not choose you
you chose yourself. You could have had a lovely holiday in Fairyland and never met the Marquess, never worried yourself with local politics, had a romp with a few brownies and gone home with enough memories for a lifetime's worth of novels. But you didn't. You chose. You chose it all. Just like you chose your path on the beach: to lose your heart is not a path for the faint and fainting. — Catherynne M Valente

I have made calculations that would beggar your soul. What is it that villains always say at the end of stories? You and I are more alike than you think? Well," the Marquess took September's hand in hers and very gently kissed it. "We are. Oh, how alike we are! I feel very warmly towards you, and I only want to protect you, as I wish someone had protected me. Come, September, look out the window with me. It's not a difficult thing. A show of faith, let's call it. — Catherynne M Valente

The Marquess shrugged. "I'm a shadow. I do know I am a shadow, Iago. I know most of the time. It's only when I cannot bear how everyone looks at me down here that I make myself forget it. Shadows are the other side of yourself. I had longings to be good, even then. I was just stronger than my wanting. I'm stronger than anything, really, when I want to be." The Marquess's hair turned white as the snow. "Do you know, we're right underneath Springtime Parish? This place is the opposite of springtime. Everything past prime, boarded up for the season. Just above us, the light shines golden on daffodils full of rainwine and heartgrass and a terrible, wicked, sad girl I can't get back to. I don't even know if I want to. Do I want to be her again? Or do I want to be free? I come here to think about that. To be near her and consider it. I think I shall never be free. I think I traded my freedom for a better story. It was a better story, even if the ending needed work. — Catherynne M Valente

In real life, it's always the good guys who die in the end. — James Marquess

As long as your life is a succession of love stories, you can never grow old. — James Marquess

I hesitate to say what the functions of the modern journalist may be, but I imagine that they do not exclude the intelligent anticipation of the facts even before they occur. — George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon Of Kedleston

Is she very terrible?"

The Green Wind frowned into his brambly beard. "All little girls are terrible, " he admitted finally, "but the Marquess, at least, has a very fine hat. — Catherynne M Valente

The sonnet has been the one distinctive characteristic of love present throughout the years. — James Marquess

It is your life, if it has to end, you better go kicking and screaming and trying to have the best exit ever. — James Marquess

If politicians would think more they would act less. — George Savile, 1st Marquess Of Halifax

He was The Demon Highlander, elder brother to the Blackheart of Ben More. These monikers, they were not granted by the happenstance of birth or marriage, like a Marquess or an Earl, they were earned by means of ruthless violence and bloodshed. It was easy to forget that fact beneath the grand chandelier of this lofty keep. That was, until the fire in the hearth ignited the amber in his eyes, lending him a ferocity that even his expensive attire couldn't tame. — Kerrigan Byrne

September did not want to feel for the Marquess. That's how villains get you, she knew. You feel badly for them, and next thing you know, you're tied to train tracks. But her wild, untried heart opened up another bloom inside her, a dark branch heavy with fruit. — Catherynne M Valente

Jules could have sworn there was a devilish glint in the shopkeepers eye.
'I find today I am in need of a bonnet.'
Mr. Postlethwaite was silent. And then his eyes crept toward the marquess's hairline.
'It will be a gift for a woman, Mr. Postlethwaite.'
'Of course, sir.'
The marquess wished the 'of course' sounded a bit more sincere. He'd scarcely been in the shop for more than three minutes and already his dignity was fraying. — Julie Anne Long

But here's the thing about having been in love that first time: I always knew, every time after, that what I was faced with was a pale imitation. I never found someone else I could trust with my soul. After that first time, nothing else was acceptable. — Courtney Milan

I never knew that the lower classes had such white skins. — George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon Of Kedleston

It wasn't only you, Lord Langford. It was this place, these people. This life. I want nothing to do with it."
"It's a bit late for that, Rue. Whether you like it or not, we are your blood."
"Half my blood."
"Aye," agreed the marquess, sober. "Although 'twould seem you've gotten the better half by far. All beauty, none of the beast."
She blinked at that, and crossed her arms.
"How charming! Had you planned that for long?"
"Only since this morning." He shrugged, unabashed. "I'll do better in London."
"Please, don't bother."
"I'm afraid I can't help myself. I'm charming by nature." And he looked back at her now in utter and wicked innocence, snaring her in a world of sharp, splendid green.
-Rue & Kit — Shana Abe

Henry Dalton, Marquess of Cavendish, — Amylynn Bright

Personally I do not believe in the likelihood of Persian oil deposits being worked at profit. — George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon Of Kedleston

Catherine," said the Marquess, placing one hand on Cath's shoulder and one on his wife's. "We know you've been through some . . . difficult things recently."

Anger, hot and throbbing, blurred in her vision.

"But we want you to be sure . . . absolutely sure this is what you want." His eyes turned wary beneath his bushy eyebrows. "We want you to be happy. That's all we've ever wanted. Is this what's going to make you happy?"

Cath held his gaze, feeling the puncture of Raven's talons on her shoulder, the weight of the rubies around her throat, the itch of her petticoat on her thighs.

"How different everything could have been," she said, "if you had thought to ask me that before."

She shrugged his arm away and pushed between them. She didn't look back. — Marissa Meyer

If you are too afraid of losing something, it means you didn't care enough for it in the first place. — James Marquess

By the by," Stephen said, "what is the difference between a viscount and a stallion?"
Miss Marshall shook her head. "What is it?"
Stephen gave her a broad smile. "The first is a horse's arse. The second is an entire horse."
She buried her head in her hands. "No. You cannot distract me with terrible jokes. You are supposed to be looking up facts. Shoo!"
But Stephen didn't stop. "What's the difference between a marquess and a paperweight?"
"I'm sure you'll tell me."
"One of them can't do anything unless a servant helps it along. The other one holds down papers. — Courtney Milan

She didn't want to think about how wrong this was or how foolish it was to give herself to a known seducer. Because tonight Oliver wasn't that man. Not to her. He was the boy who'd cried over his dead mother, the young man who'd lost himself in drink and women to forget the past, the marquess who'd vowed not to marry for money. He was the man to be her lover. — Sabrina Jeffries

When people think they have all the time in the world, they don't even bother to get out of bed. — James Marquess

A man of the utmost insignificance. — George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon Of Kedleston

The marquess held the weapon out, as formally as if he were passing a sword.
Soberly, Ned accepted it. He placed the sacrificial citrus on the table in front of him, and then with one careful
incision, eviscerated it. He speared deep into its heart, his
hands steady, and then cut it to pieces. Jenny allotted herself one short moment of wistful sorrow for her afterdinner treat gone awry as the juice ran everywhere.
"Enough." She reached out and covered his hand midstab.
"It's dead now," she explained gravely.
He pulled his hand away and nodded. Lord Blakely took back his knife and cleaned it with a handkerchief.
Jenny studied the corpse. It was orange. It was pulpy. It
was going to be a mess to clean up. Most importantly, it gave her an excuse to sit and think of something mystical to say - the only reason for this exercise, really. Lord Blakely
demanded particulars. But in Jenny's profession, specifics were the enemy. — Courtney Milan

Meanwhile the old Marquess, visibly moved, was charging Odo to respect his elders and superiors, while in the same breath warning him not to take up with the Frenchified notions of the court, but to remember that for a lad of his condition the chief virtues were a tight seat in the saddle, a quick hand on the sword and a slow tongue in counsel. "Mind your own business," he concluded, "and see that others mind theirs." The Marchioness thereupon, with many tears, hung a — Edith Wharton

The lower sort of men must be indulged the consolation of finding fault with those above them; without that, they would be so melancholy that it would be dangerous, considering their numbers. — George Savile, 1st Marquess Of Halifax

This is one of those days, isn't it? You want to stay safe in a dark, little room a bit longer, hoping the light will never catch up with you, you don't know what's going to happen, but whatever it is, it will wreck your world. — James Marquess

Gentlemen never wear brown in London. — George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon Of Kedleston

When Phoebe glanced back at the marquess he swiftly lifted that rogue lock of hair, pointed at his forehead and mouthed: Good aim. She clapped a hand over her mouth. Dear God, he was sporting a bruise! So that's where she'd clocked him with his hat! And this explained the forelock. — Julie Anne Long

Being wise doth either make men our friends or discourage them from being our enemies. — George Savile, 1st Marquess Of Halifax

Don't be afraid, we'll never know until we try. — James Marquess

Life is always a competition. — James Marquess

The interests of the employers and the employed are the same nine times out of ten-I will even say ninety-nine times out of ten. — George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon Of Kedleston

He had grown up among people to whom such emotions were unknown. The old Marquess's passion for his fields and woods was the love of the agriculturist and the hunter, not that of the naturalist or the poet; and the aristocracy of the cities regarded the country merely as so much soil from which to draw their maintenance. The gentlefolk never absented themselves from town but for a few weeks of autumn, when they went to their villas for the vintage, transporting thither all the diversions of city life and venturing no farther afield than the pleasure-grounds that were but so many open-air card-rooms, concert-halls and theatres. Odo's tenderness for every sylvan function of renewal and decay, every shifting of light and colour on the flying surface of the year, would have been met with the same stare with which a certain enchanting Countess — Edith Wharton

Always be shorter than anybody dared to hope. — Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess Of Reading

Imagine the ton would leap from London Bridge if the marquess did it first. Mind you, he'd land on a cart carrying a feather mattress when he did it, whilst the rest of London would splatter. — Julie Anne Long

He nodded. I no longer focus on meeting their expectations because I am too focused on outdoing hers. — Sarah MacLean

You're Piers Brandon, the Marquess of Granville, diplomat and secret agent in the Crown's service." She ran a fingertip down the noble slope of his nose. "And I'm Char - "
Her words were lost in a gasp.

With the speed and strength of a whip, he had her turned on her back, sprawled beneath him on the tufted carriage seat.
"You will be Lady Charlotte Brandon, the Marchioness of Granville, diplomat's wife and mother of my heir."
.......
"You'll be mine," he murmured. "I swear it, Charlotte. I will make you mine. — Tessa Dare

To the question, What shall we do to be saved in this World? there is no other answer but this, Look to your Moat. — George Savile, 1st Marquess Of Halifax

I beg your pardon for questioning your judgement," she said. "It is nothing to me, after all, if it proves faulty. I am not the one responsible for the Marquess of Atherton's heir and sole offspring. I am not the one who will be toppled from my pedestal if the world learns I have not only permitted but encouraged my nephew to associate with the most shocking persons. I am not the one who-"
"I wish you were the one who had heard of the rule Silence is Golden," he said. — Loretta Chase

Edward Campbell Lowe was a radical in his blood and in his bones... his maternal grandfather had famously made a bonfire with a valuable portrait of the Marquess of Bute because, he had declared, it was more than a man could stomach to encounter a Tory every morning before breakfast. — Clare Clark

Marquess of Anglesey, in 1912 but it was — Ursula D'Abo