Proper Lady Quotes & Sayings

We had another game where he was the doctor making a house call and I was the proper Victorian lady besieged by hysteria (also known as sexual frustration) which could only be relieved by a paroxysm (also known as an orgasm) the doctor brought on with either his hand or my vibrator. (At first Quinn didn't believe me when I told him that this actually happened in history, and that vibrators were, in fact, invented by doctors whose hands were cramping up from flicking sexually frustrated Victorian beans all day long, but I swear to God it's true. Just another one of those fun facts stored up in my brain.) — Melanie Harlow

Art,' she said.
'My second favorite subject.'
She gave him a shrewd look. 'You wish for me to ask you what your favorite is.'
'Am I so obvious?'
'You are only obvious when you wish to be.'
'And alas, it still doesn't work. You have not asked me what my favorite subject is.'
'Because,' she returned, sitting down, 'I am quite certain the answer will contain something highly inappropriate.'
He placed one hand on his chest, the dramatic gesture somehow restoring his equilibrium. It was easier to play the jester. No one expected as much from fools. 'I am wounded,' he proclaimed. 'I promise you, I was not going to say that my favorite subject was seduction, or the art of a kiss, or the proper way to remove a lady's glove, or for that matter the proper way to remove - '
'Stop! — Julia Quinn

She felt like a proper lady, she did. — Chris Wooding

A proper young lady who should, in your opinion, play by the conventional rules. do as you like, Mr. Hopkins, but I am having a mulled wine. This feels like a good day to break rules. — A.S. Croyle

Mind you, after your silly debutantes have finished their proper posture and walking lessons, tell them it never killed any young lady to remove the book from off the top of her head and open it for a change. Just like I taught you. — Gaelen Foley

For once, the only one she had to please with her decision was herself, and the truth was, Gabrielle had been far happier as a pretend goblin, than a pretend proper lady. — Drew Hayes

Both Tom and I adore detective stories. Isn't that so, Tom?" [Lady Brace]
"Right!" agreed her husband ... "But they've got to be proper detective stories. They've got to present a tricky, highly sophisticated problem, which you're given fair opportunity to solve."
"And," amplified Virginia, "no saying they're psychological studies when the author can't write for beans."
"Correct!" her husband agreed again. "Couldn't care less when you're supposed to get all excited as to whether the innocent man will be hanged or the innocent heroine will be seduced. Heroine ought to be seduced; what's she there for? The thing is the mystery. It's not worth reading if the mystery is simple or easy or no mystery at all. — Carter Dickson

I used to have a pony but I outgrew it and I do dream that one day I will live in the country and have lots of horses and be like a proper English lady who goes hunting and everything. — Georgia Jagger

What business, said Priscilla's look more plainly than any words, what business had people to walk into other people's cottages in such a manner? She stood quite still, and scrutinized Mrs. Morrison with the questioning expression she used to find so effective in Kunitz days when confronted by a person inclined to forget which, exactly, was his proper place. But Mrs. Morrison knew nothing of Kunitz, and the look lost half its potency without its impressive background. Besides, the lady was not one to notice things so slight as looks; to keep her in her proper place you would have needed sledge-hammers. — Elizabeth Von Arnim

A woman can be demure, lady-like and the most prim and proper character, and still have a toughness and resiliency as apparent as a superhero-type female character or a warrior or soldier type. It's all about the story, the character, and the course of events in that piece of work and how that character is presented. — Katherine McNamara

On the whole, as we readily acquiesce in the acknowledgment that the field and the cabinet are the proper spheres assigned to our Masters and our Lords, may we also deserve the dignified title and encomium of Mistress and Lady in our kitchens and in our parlours. — Deborah Sampson

My eyes narrowed. "And you'll take me right home after we see it?"
"If that's what you want," he said softly, running his thumb along my cheekbone. "But I'd be tempted to see if I could convince you to stop acting like the proper lady your mother wants you to be."
"So you did hear her." I groaned, blushing. — Andrea Cremer

No matter our dire circumstances, no matter our shared upbringing, no matter the chill his smile sends over my body, he's still him, and I'm still me, and yes, he needs to have a female heir someday, but with a proper lady, a duchess or a princess - not the girl who spars with him. — Sara Raasch

I'll not have an exchange with an impudent fool." [Oswald]
He's not impudent," said Jones [the puppet]. "With proper inspiration, the lad sports a woody as stout as a mooring pin. Ask your lady."
I nodded in agreement with the puppet, for he is most wise for having a brain of sawdust.
Impudent! Impudent! Not impotent!" said Oswald, frothing a bit now. — Christopher Moore

Britt said "If you will excuse me, My Lady."
"You leave?"
"I do."
"How can you?"
"Quite easily, I assure you."
Tears welled up in Guinevere's eyes. "Will you not give me a token to remember you by?"
Britt frowned. "You're nuts aren't you?" she said before recovering and adopting the proper words. "Forgive me, My Lady, but we have met for but a few moments. What is there to remember? — K.M. Shea

It is one of her aristocratic tastes, and quite proper, for a real lady is always known by neat boots, gloves, and handkerchief. — Louisa May Alcott

Is that what you want?" he asked very quietly. "Protection?" "Oh, who knows?" This man had shown her that she knew herself far less well than she'd imagined. "I thought what I wanted was simple - to be a lady." Her laughter felt false. "It was my sister's plan, actually. We would remake ourselves. Our accents, our deportment. For gentlemen never tell a lady - a proper lady, like Miss Everleigh - to take it on the chin. It's their duty to shelter her from harshness. And that seems quite pleasant, never to be expected to endure. To be free to pursue better things, like . . . beauty and honesty and honor. So we - I - set out to become that kind of woman. A woman whom men seek to protect." What — Meredith Duran

This is what is going to happen, Aleran. You will no longer lie with me. You will treat me in exactly the fashion that you would any proper young lady of the Citizenry. You will court me, and do it well, or so help me I will strangle the life from you."
"Um," Tavi said.
"And," she said, a massively threatening quality in her tone, "you will court me properly after the ways of my people. You will do so with legendary skill and taste. And only when that is done will we share a bed once more. — Jim Butcher

It is a peculiar monthly Affliction inducing them [the men of Regency England] to take on various unnatural shapes - neither quite demon, nor proper beast - and in those shapes to roam the land; to hunt, murder, dismember, gorge on blood, consume haggis and kidney pie, gamble away their familial fortune, marry below their station (and below their statue, when the lady is an Amazon), vote Whig, perform sudden and voluntary manual labor, cultivate orchids, collect butterflies and Limoges snuff boxes, and perpetrate other such odious evil - unless properly contained. — Vera Nazarian

He whistled, and Mrs. O'Leary bounded after him to the far end of the grove. Leneus huffed indignantly and brushed the twigs off his shirt. "Now, as I was trying to explain, young lady, your boyfriend has not sent any reports since we voted him into exile." "You tried to vote him into exile," I corrected. "Chiron and Dionysus stopped you." "Bah! They are honorary Council members. It wasn't a proper vote." "I'll tell Dionysus you said that." Leneus paled. "I only meant ... Now see here, Jackson. This is none of your business." "Grover's my friend," I said. "He wasn't lying to you about Pan's death. I saw it myself. You were just too scared to accept the truth." Leneus's lips quivered. "No! Grover's a liar and good riddance. We're better off without him." I pointed at the withered thrones. "If things are going so well, where are your friends? Looks like your Council hasn't been meeting lately. — Rick Riordan

I am Mrs. Poulteney. I have come to take up residence. Kindly inform your Master."
"His Infinitude has been informed of your decease, ma'am. His angels have already sung a Jubilate in celebration of the event."
"That is most proper and kind of Him." And the worthy lady, pluming and swelling, made to sweep into the imposing white hall she saw beyond the butler's head. But the man did not move aside. Instead, he rather impertinently jangled some keys he chanced to have in his hand.
"My man! Make way. I am she. Mrs. Poulteney of Lyme Regis."
"Formerly of Lyme Regis, ma'am. And now of a much more tropical abode."
With that, the brutal flunkey slammed the door in her face. — John Fowles

If only others knew that Lady Calpurnia Hartwell, proper, well-behaved spinster, entertained deep-seated and certainly unladylike thoughts about fictional heroes. — Sarah MacLean

Thank you, Dain," she said. "I should like that very much. I've never seen a proper wrestling match before."
"I daresay it will be a novel experience all round," he said, gravely eyeing her up and down. "I can't wait to see Sherburne's face when I arrive with my lady wife in tow."
"There, you see?" she said, unoffended. "I told you there were other benefits to having a wife. I can come in very handy when you wish to shock your friends. — Loretta Chase

I'm a lady. It's none of it mine. Look at you. You're doing well enough - is your wife a rich woman?" He chuckled sheepishly at that. "She's my wife. She does as well as I do. But she doesn't own anything of her own." "It's the same for me," I said. "I do as my father does, as my husband does. I dress as is proper for their wife or their daughter. But I don't own anything on my own account. In that sense I am as poor as your wife." "But you are a Howard and I am a nobody," he observed. "I'm a Howard woman. That means I might be one of the greatest in the land or a nobody like you. It all depends." "On what?" he asked, intrigued. I thought of the sudden darkening of Henry's face when I displeased him. "On my luck. — Philippa Gregory

I haven't," I said shortly. "But I've the sense I was born with, and two ears in good working order. And whatever 'King George's health' may be in Gaelic, I doubt very much that it sounds like 'Bragh Stuart.' " He tossed back his head and laughed. "That it doesna," he agreed. "I'd tell ye the proper Gaelic for your liege lord and ruler, but it isna a word suitable for the lips of a lady, Sassenach or no. — Diana Gabaldon

just as I told Kathleen that very first day when I seen 'er, all looking fresh and pert as the flowers in May . . . I said to 'er, 'One at a time and easy does it, and wash up proper after.' Dr. Carr keeps telling them, but it's a battle to get them to listen, and the careless ones pay the price." Mrs. Walker had chatted herself into a disheartened state. "It's rare to meet a proper young lady these days. Though Kathleen Boland could 'ave passed for a princess. Until she opened that shanty-Irish mouth of 'er's." I — Owen Parry

She was the first to discover that wood, gone green with decay, can be made, at some expense, into little boxes; she went into the question of funguses; she painted on china; emblazoned heraldic arms, and, attaching whistles to the tails of pigeons, produced wonderful effects "as of an aerial orchestra" when they flew through the air. To the Duchess of Somerset belongs the credit of investigating the proper way of cooking guinea pigs; but Lady Dorothy was one of the first to serve up a dish of these little creatures at luncheon in Charles Street. — Virginia Woolf

I was once again, Miss Alexandria Charles Montague Collins, the flawless proper lady, pretentious to the help, and people pleaser - the well-bred Southern belle who wore the mask of perfection because no one wanted to see the truth underneath. — Aleatha Romig

Wouldst like to con a glimmer with me this early black?', which he [Cab Calloway] helpfully explains as 'the proper way to ask a young lady to go to the movies'. It should be noted here, that if the object of your affections replies 'Kill me', they are not requesting to be euthanatised and you should not actually murder them. Kill me is merely the Cab Calloway way of saying 'Show me a good time' and is the best response you could have hoped for. Jive was rather confusing in this way. — Mark Forsyth

A proper Irishman always does what a lady asks him. Sure an' it's been the ruin av us. We're at the mercy av the petticoats. — L.M. Montgomery

Good way is to study Bible characters - take them right from the cradle to the grave. You find that skeptics often take one particular part of a man's life - say, of the life of Jacob or of David - and judge the whole by that. They say these men were queer saints; and yet God did not punish them. If you go right through these men's lives you will find that God did punish them, according to the sins they committed. A lady once said to me that she had trouble in reading the Bible, that she seemed to not feel the interest she ought. If you don't keep up your interest in one way, try another. Never think you have to read the Bible by courses. PROPER NAMES. Another interesting study is the meaning of proper names. I need hardly remark that every name in the Bible, especially Hebrew names, — D.L. Moody

You're going to pay the bill," said Grahame. "Then I'll escort you and the young lady out to the car. And we'll go back to my place, for a proper talk. Any funny business, and I shoot you both. Capiche? "
Fat Charlie capiched. He also capiched who had been driving the black Mercedes that afternoon and just how close he had already come to death that day. He was beginning to capiche how utterly cracked Grahame Coats was and how little chance Daisy and he had of getting out of this alive. — Neil Gaiman

Apart front the things you can pick up ( the dressing and the proper way of speaking and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me like a lady and always will. — George Bernard Shaw

She'd been told time and again that it was rude stare, but she didn't obey her mother's rule now. The giant mesmerized her and she wanted to remember everything she could about him.
He must have felt her staring at him, though because he suddenly turned and looked directly her.
Brenna decided to make her papa proud of her and behave like a proper young lady. She grabbed a fistful of her skirt, hiked it up to her knees, and bent down to curtsy. She promptly lost her balance and almost hit her head against the floor, but she was quick enough to lean back so she could land on her
bottom.
She stood back up, remembered to let go of her skirts, and peeked up at the stranger to see what he thought about her newly acquired skill.
The giant smiled at her.
As soon as he looked away, she squeezed herself up against Rachel's backside again.
"I'm going to marry him," she whispered. — Julie Garwood

There seemed to be so many things that I needed, but I held myself in check and purchased only essentials - with the exception of one extravagance. I had determined that I would drink my tea like a lady, even in a log house; so I purchased a teapot and two cups and saucers of fine china. I felt somehow Mama's mind would be much more at ease about me if she knew that I was having my tea in the proper fashion. After all, civilization could not be too far away from Pine Springs if I had such amenities! — Janette Oke

Now the moon is high; and the great house, needing habitation more than ever, is like a body without life. Now it is even awful, stealing through it, to think of the live people who have slept in the solitary bedrooms, to say nothing of the dead. Now is the time for shadow, when every corner is a cavern and every downward step a pit, when the stained glass is reflected in pale and faded hues upon the floors, when anything and everything can be made of the heavy staircase beams excepting their own proper shapes, when the armour has dull lights upon it not easily to be distinguished from stealthy movement, and when barred helmets are frightfully suggestive of heads inside. But of all the shadows in Chesney Wold, the shadow in the long drawing-room upon my Lady's picture is the first to come, the last to be disturbed. At this hour and by this light it changes into threatening hands raised up and menacing the handsome face with every breath that stirs. — Charles Dickens

How many of us have gazed at a man and thought, 'yes, him,' only to have him pay his attentions to someone else? And how many of us have sighed and waited for some other gentleman to come forward? All I wish to ask is, why? Why not strike up a conversation? Why not determine for ourselves whether 'he' is the one? Why leave it to fate?"
A LADY'S GUIDE TO PROPER BEHAVIOR, 2ND EDITION — Suzanne Enoch

Lady
is safely delivered of a son, to the great joy of that noble family. The expression, of a woman's having brought her husband a son, seems to be a proper and cautious one; for it is never said, from whence. — Lord Chesterfield

When it came to monsters, she'd known the very best.' ... this is a proper quote from the book by the way, the beginning and end one isn't. — Shehanne Moore

Young men! it 's a critical thing to go Exactly right with a lady in tow; But when you are in the proper track, Just go ahead, and never look back! — John Godfrey Saxe

A proper lady should be able to smile pretty, wear sequins like she means it, and kick a man's ass nine ways from Sunday while wearing stiletto heels. If she can't do that much, she's not trying hard enough. — Seanan McGuire

I sigh. "I don't know what's happening to me."
"They're called hormones."
I shoot him a dirty look. "I'm serious."
"Me too." He cocks his head at me. "That's like, biological and shit. Scientific. Maybe your lady bits are scientifically confused."
"My lady bits?"
"Oh, I'm sorry" - Kenji pretends to look offended - "would you rather I use the proper anatomical terminology? Because you lady bits do not scare me-"
"Yeah, no thanks. — Tahereh Mafi

I'm afraid, Belle, that being a lady is more than proper clothes. It is an attitude. From your ... experience, you may know more of business and politics than ladies are supposed to know. Gentlemen are pleased to think ladies are ornamental, and it is an ill-advised ornament who contradicts her gentleman. — Donald McCaig

I know, " she said, flatly. "Antimei warned me that you would 'transform' me. I was hoping it would be into a frog, or a racquiel, or perhaps a bear -- I've always wanted to be a bear! Not a 'proper young lady'!" she said, bitterly. — Terry Mancour

They couldn't keep Death out, but while she was in she had to act like a lady. — Joseph Heller

Very few people actually saw Andy's films like Chelsea Girls where he filmed seven hours, ran it on two screens, where each scene was in a different room at the Chelsea Hotel with these people he called 'Superstars who were basically super-exhibitionists - the guy in one room high on LSD talking about masturbation, Brigid Berlin in another room playing a lesbian and shooting up people with amphetamines right through their jeans, it was all real and they were really doing it (though Brigid is now a proper lady), but you know Andy really did pre-date reality TV. — Bob Colacello