Regency Quotes & Sayings

Devilment showed in his eyes. "Well, since it is a trial, we should practice so that we can perfect our kisses."
"You need no practice. You are clearly an expert. — Vicky Dreiling

Te amo, Querida," he whispered suddenly, stroking her hair. "Tu eres mi luz en la oscuridad."
"This is the second time you've said that," Cassandra murmured. "What does it mean?"
"I love you." His voice was as rough as his hand on her cheek was gentle. "You are my light in the darkness. — Brooklyn Ann

No, I'm not smart," he whispered against her ear, "but I was wise enough to fall in love with you and clever enough to convince you to marry me. I hope I'm not so stupid that I would ever let you go. — Sara Lindsey

to want any woman so badly was unwise, let alone his enemy's daughter." An Artful Seduction — Tina Gabrielle

Austen suggests that a gentleman is made, not born - and made only through a process of painful self-reflection and discovery. — Emily Auerbach

He took her face between his hands, turning it up, and looking down at her for a moment before he kissed her. "I do love you, Jenny," he said gently. "Very much indeed
you are part of my life. Julia was never that-only a boy's impractical dream. — Georgette Heyer

Dashed if I don't think he's begun to get queer in his attic! Well, what I mean is, hubble-bubble! I don't set up as one of these clever coves, but I've got more sense in my knowledge-box than to say such an addle-brained thing as that! Seems to me it don't make a ha'porth of difference whether you keep the dashed mill, or whether you don't, because that's where all your gingerbread came from, whichever way you look at it. And don't you tell me it's repugnant to him to have you coming down with the derbies, because all I've got to say to that is, Gammon! — Georgette Heyer

By some miracle, Charlotte's polite smile never wavered. It was a proud moment for her. After all, it wasn't every day that a little old lady told you right to your face that your bosom was as flat as a flounder. — Olivia Parker

You are my one and only, for all eternity. — Vicky Dreiling

We must go to the laboratory at once. I have some cannabis. — Brooklyn Ann

We always have to go backward to move forward. Whether it's to face our own missteps or reach the end of our lives with a final mistake... We always have to go back to pull ourselves out of ignorance or cast ourselves deeper into revenge. — Amy Rachiele

He'd missed matching wits with her. "Shall we duel with our lips?"
"You may find yourself eating grass for breakfast. — Vicky Dreiling

The thought flashed into her mind that she beheld the embodiment of her ideal. It was as instantly banished; — Georgette Heyer

I only hope I may not be ruined," she was saying miserably. "I should be obliged to marry you after all, and then I'd likely murder you before the wedding breakfast was over. — Christina Brooke

I do, love. I want you more than you could ever know. More than I could have ever dreamed. I want you enough for two men. For ten. — Sarah MacLean

Yet, after all, Jenny thought she had been granted more than she hoped for when she married him. He did love her: differently, but perhaps more enduringly; and he had grown to depend on her. She thought that they would have many years of quiet content: never reaching the heights, but living together in comfort and deepening friendship. — Georgette Heyer

Should I rejoice in the inferiority of my fate?" - John Lockwood — Noorilhuda

I dislike this waistcoat."
He raised his brows. "What's wrong with it?"
"You're still wearing it. — Erica Ridley

I really think I'd have enjoyed the life of a Regency buck. — Patrick Macnee

Julia could form no opinion of Robert, the bespectacled middle child, for he passed the entire journey with his nose stuck in a book, returning only monosyllabic answers to any questions put to him — Sheri Cobb South

God had not answered her mother's prayers and she doubted He would answer hers. — Sarah E. Ladd

How to explain the sheer tingling joy one experiences when two interesting, complex, and occasionally aggravating characters have at last settled their misunderstandings and will live happily ever after, no matter what travails life might throw in their path, because Jane Austen said they will, and that's that? How to describe the exhilaration of being caught up in an unknown but glamorous world of balls and gowns and rides in open carriages with handsome young men? How to explain that the best part of Jane Austen's world is that sudden recognition that the characters are just like you? — Margaret C. Sullivan

The only thing he was sorry for was slamming the door and perhaps raising his voice to the woman who'd been like a mother to him since the passing of his parents. Perhaps she hadn't really deserved his reaction, but he was, justifiably, weary of their meddling and hearing about his father's will. Apparently no suitable maiden was going to appear on his doorstep. He seemed to be looking for a needle in a haystack. — Lisa M. Prysock

One minute he stood transfixed, the next he uttered a crushing oath, and took a hasty stride forward. Mr Ringwood, recovering from his own stupefaction, closed with him, just as George, flushing vividly, sprang to his feet.

"Sherry!" Mr Ringwood said warningly. "For God's sake, dear boy, remember where you are! You can't choke George to death here! — Georgette Heyer

... You make me feel as if I am a bird soaring in the sky. When you are not with me, I am bound to the ground." He touched her soft cheek. "I want you to marry me, Ruby. Will you? — Jettie Necole

Do I get a reward?" he asked as he brought her hand to his mouth for a kiss.
Ruby darted her eyes away from him as she blushed with embarrassment. "For my rescue?" she dared.
His eyes twinkled. "For rescuing each other." He placed his hand along her back and pulled her against his chest. — Jettie Necole

We are great friends, Fredrick, and I do not want to lose you. Marriage is something I am not ready for, even if it were with my best friend. Can we not continue to love each other the way we always have?"
His eyes scanned her face and his hands reunited with hers. "My dear lady, I love you more than that," Fredrick said tenderly. — Jettie Necole

A woman's lust is addictive ," he murmured, marveling at the wetness coating his fingers as he stroked her. She trembled and her breath hitched in response. "It inspires a man to touch and to taste. — Alexandra Hawkins

Does this feel like pity to you, Alex? I assure you a great many emotions for you fill me, but pity is not one of them. — Dominique Eastwick

It could hardly be made since the pyramids, it is thought, were erected in the predynastic age under the regency of Pharaoh Cheops. This pharaoh, who was also known as Khufu, lived between 2589 and 2566 BC, or one thousand years before the Hyksos (Levites) were ever heard of. — Michael Tsarion

We must repudiate the settling of native artisans in some wilderness,[13] for this is the day to call for the greatest synthesis of the century: To incorporate into a single trumpet blast the voices of the dead centuries, to give regency to the scientific chorus of modernity, to bring to life the developments affected by our generation, to instill in them a demonic fire, and to thaw-out the frozen engine of history. — Anonymous

You don't feel you could marry me instead? Got no brains, of course, and I ain't a handsome fellow, like Jack, but I love you. Don't think I could ever love anyone else. — Georgette Heyer

My Angel, goddess of my heart, you are beautiful. — Jaimey Grant

She raised the shovel, ready to plunge it into the soft soil. "I am not afraid. I am not."
"You should be." A sinister, accented voice pierced her consciousness.
The shovel fell from her nerveless fingers, thudding onto the cold ground.
Cassandra knew that voice; it had the rich, dark cadence that had haunted her dreams since the night she'd first met him. She spun around, the hood of her cloak falling to her shoulders.
Rafael Villar stepped out from behind a mausoleum. The shadows embraced his bronze skin, obscuring the scars on the left side of his face while moonlight highlighted his exotic Mediterranean features on the right....
"You! You've been the one disturbing my people? — Brooklyn Ann

... The freshly devoured peppermint she loved lofted from her breath and up to his nose with her loud bellow of Father in his ear, and Caxton was sure that he could smell that scent now out in the crisp night air. "You demon!" he screamed with all his might. ... — Jettie Necole

I can't help wanting. I want you to burn as I burn. I want you to lie awake at night thinking of me. If you sleep, I want you to dream of me. I want you to tell me that you can't stand the sight of me dancing with another woman. I want to know this last week has been as miserable for you as it has been for me. — Sara Lindsey

Julia stood for his youth, and the high hopes he had cherished; and although he might no longer yearn to possess her she would remain nostalgically dear to him while life endured. — Georgette Heyer

I must own, too, that I can't be astonished at his being vexed to death over this business. It is excessively awkward! However, he doesn't lay the blame for that at my door: you mustn't think that!"
"I should think not indeed!" exclaimed Anthea between amusement and indignation. "How could he possibly do so?"
"No, very true, my love!" agreed Mrs Darracott. "I thought that myself, but it did put me on the fidgets when Richmond said he wanted to see me, because in general, you know, things I never even heard about turn out to be my fault. — Georgette Heyer

This whole theory [of John Law and Jean Terrasson], as dear to French financial schemers in the eighteenth century as to American " Greenbackers " in the nineteenth, had resulted, under the Orleans Regency and Louis XV, in ruin to France financially and morally, had culminated in the utter destruction of all prosperity, the rooting out of great numbers of the most important industries, and the grinding down of the working people even to starvation. — Andrew Dickson White

Ruby's eyes shot open when she woke, for she felt a constraint around her wrists and ankles. Feeling with her fingers, she touched cold metal. Her small movement gave the chains a slight jingle. A sinking feeling washed over her at the realization that she was chained. — Jettie Necole

I've never kissed an art forger before" Lord Huntington to Eliza Somerton in "An Artful Seduction — Tina Gabrielle

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 dream came again - three times in three nights and always at the first of the year. — Jettie Necole

Every morning," he said softly, his breath caressing her cheek. "You were my only thought." He tilted closer. "Every night, you were my only thought." His lips brushed her cheekbone. "Every moment of every day, you were my only thought. — Erica Ridley

Can't sleep?" he murmured, the corners of his eyes crinkling.
She blushed, but held his gaze. "Don't wish to sleep."
"Mmm. I can help with that."...
"Do you have anything particular in mind?"
"Everything. — Erica Ridley

The Earl of Blackstone didn't seem particularly mysterious to Emily. In fact, as he stood there silently - except for that sneering laugh he'd tried to cover up - she could think of several other adjectives to add to the list next time Sarah was searching for one: rude, self-important, boorish. And, if one could judge by the slightly slack-jawed way he stared at her, perhaps even "simple. — Jenny Holiday

You strive all through your life, to get somewhere, to be something, Some One, to matter, to have this, to have that, fill up your life with possessions, bonds, connections and in the end, the greed is still there, one does not want to let go, not unless the great gods come down and say enough is enough, no more......till then all you want is one more day." - Frank Adams — Noorilhuda

Aden St. George managed to avoid having to kill the guard stationed outside his quarry's crypt-like cell, although the thug outside the caves hadn't been so lucky. Still, that bastard had tried to knife him in the gut so Aden could hardly be faulted for returning the favor. And knowing what he did about the men who'd kidnapped Lady Vivien Shaw, he wouldn't waste his fitful conscience on that brutal but necessary act. Killing was not a favorite pastime, but only rarely did it disturb his sleep.
Tonight's rescue mission carried no inconvenient opportunities for remorse since a woman's life and innocence hung in the balance. True, the gossips whispered that Lady Vivien's innocence was an open question, but what would happen to her if Aden failed wasn't. Without his intervention she would disappear into a nightmarish life, forever beyond the protection of her family and friends. — Vanessa Kelly

It is calculated that George III had an astonishing fifty-six grandchildren. He did not have one legitimate heir. The vision of Charlotte had sustained the people through the direst years of the regency. Without her, all hope seemed gone.

From "Becoming Queen Victoria — Kate Williams

Now he knew there was so much more to her story and damn if he didn't want to read the whole book. — Cassandra Samuels

Ravenwood ran a hand through his wavy chestnut hair, upsetting the careful work of his valet.

Or not. Given the popularity of the "frightened owl" hairstyle today, Amelia couldn't fathom much effort being involved at all. — Erica Ridley

The prejudice of the Americans against monarchy, which Mr. Lloyd George made no attempt to counteract, had made it clear to the beaten Empire that it would have better treatment from the Allies as a republic than as a monarchy. Wise policy would have crowned and fortified the Weimar Republic with a constitutional sovereign in the person of an infant grandson of the Kaiser, under a Council of Regency. — Winston S. Churchill

God was so very far away. — Carolyn Miller

Being a pioneering reformer is all fine and good, but it does leave one terribly in want of a
good party! — Jenny Holiday

To be your companion."
"Companion?" He said the word as if he were spitting a bad taste from his mouth. "I am a killer. A monster! Can you not see that? — Jettie Necole

We should go," he said gruffly, his face inscrutable.

"Why?" Her heartbeat thundered. She gripped his arms tight to keep herself from twining her own about his neck.

He lowered his mouth to her ear, brushing it with a feather-soft kiss. "It isn't safe."

Her answering shiver had nothing to do with the cold. She had never stood so close to any man, had never fought the urge to press herself even closer.

"What could happen?" she whispered.

He cupped her face in his hands. "Anything. — Erica Ridley

There's a Lady Amelia Pembroke here to see you, my lord. She was most insistent."

Benedict glanced up from his desk. "I trust you informed her that I was not receiving, and refused to let her in?"

"Of course." The butler hesitated before continuing, "She said she would simply wait until you are receiving."

Benedict put down his pen. "Wait where, pray?"

"Upon the front step, my lord. I'm afraid the lady brought... the lady brought... a book. She cannot be budged. — Erica Ridley

Lucy saw the delighted expressions of the guests and knew they looked like something out an Austen movie. Well, at least Jem did. She giggled a little and cleared her throat.
"Something funny?" he murmured out of the corner of his mouth.
"Just thinking how you're just like Captain Wentworth and I'm just like Tina Turner. — Mary Jane Hathaway

That's not a catalog!" Amelia's brother set aside his empty glass and plate to peer across the maplewood table. "Why the devil are you reading Debrett's Peerage?"

"It most certainly is a catalog," she replied, "and the most expedient one at my disposal. I've decided to take a husband. His name must be within these pages. — Erica Ridley

One of the things that interests me about the Regency period is how women began to stir under the thumbs of men, wanting more and bigger freedoms. — Julia London

Most books set in England between 1800 and 1840 have a 'Regency' feel. The reason that era is so useful for romance authors stems from the wide-ranging social changes that were occurring over that time, and the parallels, or echoes, those create with our time and the lives of our readers. — Stephanie Laurens

You might be the matched half to me. The white to my black. — Renee Rose

Awash in sensation, it took several moments for Charlotte to come to her senses. She slowly pulled away from him and pressed her fingers to her lips. She desperately wanted to stay with him.

Forever.

But since that wasn't possible, she needed to leave before they went too far. There were so many things she wanted to say to him, but he was so close. Her pulse raced, and she couldn't seem to catch her breath. Words were beyond her capabilities.

Until voices sounded outside the door and a very inelegant word escaped her mouth.

Charlotte — Ally Broadfield

Life is, you know, but an idea. You can fill it up with anything really and deceive yourself into believing that is what you need. You can be happy, sad, benevolent, crafty, unpleasant. That man filled it up with nastiness and it destroyed him in the end. I wonder what could have made him that way. Cruelty on the part of others or cruelty in his heart?" - Lady Cavendish — Noorilhuda

You should know that Rafael is not the beast he would have you believe he is. He may be harsh, but he is fair. However, I highly recommend that you endeavor to be on his good side."
She raised a brow. "Does he have one? — Brooklyn Ann

Please, I do not wish to be rescued by a gentleman. Could you find a farmer or a shopkeep - anyone not of the gentry - and then do me a great favor of forgetting you saw me? — Cindy Anstey

Hollywood Regency is a label some people put on me, but I consider myself a modernist in that I always try to make the work feel fresh. — Kelly Wearstler

He tried to disguise how tired and ill he was, how depressing the thought of death was to him and how he spent his days and nights thinking up schemes of living beyond what the prognosis said. His hope, if not his heart, would find a way. — Noorilhuda

I'm not Janessa. I want to celebrate my wedding, with friends and family, while having a really good time. If someone spills punch on my dress, I'm not going to cry about it."
Lucy raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, I may cry just a bit but it's only because it's an Austen-era reproduction and anybody would feel the pain of destroying something so lovely. — Mary Jane Hathaway

She narrowed her gaze. "I don't trust you to keep your eyes closed."
"Smart woman," he said. "I wouldn't trust me, either, if I were you. — Christina Brooke

A gentleman can't let a lady sleep in an armchair while he takes his ease in a bed."
"But you are not a gentleman," she pointed out. "You are the greatest scoundrel in all the land."
He tilted his head to consider that. "All right. You take the chair. — Christina Brooke

Lydia is enduring the same fate, I may remind you." Vincent remarked. "And she is doubtless freezing, being forced to stand there in only her chemise." A rakish smile spread across his features. "Perhaps we could go down and have a peek."
Rafe scowled. "I don't want you looking at my woman."
Vincent folded his arms and glared. "Well, I don't want you looking at my woman! — Brooklyn Ann

Oliver couldn't walk away. Not when the wallflower needed rescuing. His goddamn Achilles heel, no matter how disastrous the outcome tended to be. He just wished his heroics would work out for once.
He kept his eyes trained on the pretty black-haired American, every muscle tensed for action. An eternity ticked by. No one approached her. She had no one to dance with, to talk to. She looked... lost. Hauntingly lonely. Frightened and defiant all at the same time.
'Twould be better for them both if he turned around right now. Never met her eye. Never exchanged a single word. Left her to her fate and him to his.
It was already too late. — Erica Ridley

When I started writing, I didn't have the common sense to use a pseudonym, so I write under my own name. If I did have a pen name, though, it would be something very historical - something that sounds very sort of Regency ... Sophia something. — Nicola Cornick

Blindly, Grace pushed away from the velvet-lined wall...

Right into the path of a giant as tall and as hard as an oak.

A firm hand caught her about the waist as strong fingers captured her wrists. She blinked the sting of unshed tears from her eyes to find herself entangled not with an oak, but with a man possessed of dark brown hair and dangerous golden eyes. A wry smile curved his lips as the orchestra began the opening strains of a waltz. — Erica Ridley

People do understand the language of the heart, you know, even if the head does not always comprehend it. — Mary Balogh

I love stepping back in time — Frances McCarthy

So the Bawdy Bluestocking was the proprietress of her own shop, selling lurid novels to ladies in the front and more esoteric fare in the back, from the looks of the shelves around him. He spied Pope and Crabbe, Shakespeare, of course, and names he did not recognize at all. He wondered how she chose her stock and where it came from. She must spend her days in endless research. The thought was unaccountably lovely to him. — Evelyn Pryce

No, but on the other hand you don't enact me Cheltenham tragedies when I've barely swallowed my breakfast. — Georgette Heyer

He clutched her to him with a desperate strength that almost hurt. "I will love you for your light, if you can love me through the dark times. And that love will be like the clear night sky when the moon is full. Not like the sun....but beautiful and bright enough to find our way. — Kerrigan Byrne

You are not by any manner of means the sort of woman I am in search of as a wife, and I am in a totally different universe from the husband you hope to find. But I feel a powerful urge to kiss you, for all that. — Mary Balogh

He tasted like Edmund, smelled like Edmund, felt like second chances. He kissed her as if she were as indispensable as air. As though his every heartbeat belonged as much to her as it did to him. — Erica Ridley

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

The boy continued with a desperate note. "You may have saved my life, but it is not my life any longer, it is yours. — Jettie Necole

If I could," he went on, "I would remain like this indefinitely - clasped by you, held inside you, a part of you - without moving at all. When we make love, I fight climax with everything I have. I don't want to come; I do not want it to end. No matter how long I make it last, it isn't nearly long enough. I am furious when I cannot hold back any longer. Why, Jess? If all I seek is the physical relief of natural lust, just as I would seek sleep or food, why would I deny myself?"
She turned her head and caught his mouth with hers, kissing him desperately.
"Tell me you understand," he demanded, his lips moving beneath hers. "Tell me you feel it, too."
"I feel you," she breathed, as intoxicated by his ardency as she was by the finest claret. "You have become everything to me. — Sylvia Day

Well,' Frederick had said, 'I will see what can be arranged, Archie. But I will not have the girl frightened or compromised.'
'You sound like a grandfather who has raised fifteen daughters and is now starting on his granddaughters, Freddie,' Lord Archibald had said. 'It is most disconcerting. — Mary Balogh

He didn't choose between me and you, Julia: it was between me and ruin. — Georgette Heyer

I did not think you would be this impressed with my visit. I should come to see you more often."
"Oh Fredrick," she said, not amused. "I am so glad to see a familiar face."
"Is that all? A familiar face?" He let out a sigh. "For a minute I thought you'd missed me."
She let go of him and stood back to swat him playfully on the arm. "Do not play with me, Fredrick. Of course I missed you. You have been away from my company for far too long. — Jettie Necole

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

He gave a nod. "My future lies in your hands."
"Not your future, Gerard, but the path leading to it," she suggested — Jettie Necole

It is unforgivable that men and women who have worked the land and served us for generations should be so bewildered and fearful, because of laws made to accommodate the greed of others," Darcy said, "Laws are meant to make the lives of citizens better, not worse. — Rebecca Ann Collins

The gentleman had been an uncommonly affable fellow, but every time he counted to twenty (and he seemed to do so with strange frequency), he skipped the number twelve. — Julia Quinn

I am still not used to being the possessor of such a grand title. I believe I shall have to start wearing a purple satin turban and carrying a lorgnette. — Mary Balogh

Right, I totally forgot. I can't wait to taste the flummery."
"I'm not sure if I want to know what that is," Manning said.
"It's a sort of jelly, but made into a mold that is shaped like a castle or a tower or just a" - Debbie Mae wiggled one hand - "big wobbly thing. The ragout of veal will be a hit, I'm sure. And the Roman punch will have to be changed a little bit. It's usually lemon water and hot syrup with a lot of rum. — Mary Jane Hathaway

She turned to him with wide, shocked eyes. "Why did he..."
His lips twitched. No coarse language in front of the infants limited the ability to discuss the fountain of baby piss that had just arced halfway across the room.
"Twasn't you, darling. It's one of their favorite bath-time games.
"Something about the cool air on their naked...berries," he substituted at the last second....
"Do I have piddle in my hair?" she whispered, her eyes sparkling with laughter above her flushed cheeks.
"Not much," he assured her with a straight face. "You look almost becoming."...
"Decades from now, when our children ask how I fell in love with their mother, I'll say 'twas her sweet, gentle compliments during bath-time, and her fleetness of foot whilst dodging a flow of --- — Erica Ridley

Feris was taller than the average man and his looks were sinister in the form of long dark hair and deep-set eyes. He had an untouchable, magnetic quality that consumed any beholder whose gaze fell upon him as he spoke, and when he fell silent, his penetrating stare easily defied any predators. — Jettie Necole

The ladies, I daresay, will have already selected silk gowns and appropriate jewels," the countess droned on, "and are quite capable of comporting themselves in line with both propriety and fashion."

"I don't care about fashion," Lord Sheffield murmured into Amelia's ear, "but I'm sorely disappointed whenever a lady I escort decides to comport herself with propriety. — Erica Ridley

Do what feels natural. Forget what you have been taught, or trained, or hell, been told. If you want to touch me, do so. If you want to explore your body," his gaze followed the line of her body, "by all means please touch yourself. — Dominique Eastwick

Ah, lady, when I gave my heart to thee, It passed into thy lifelong regency. — Gilbert Parker

It may be small comfort, but I believe Rafe doesn't want to kill you."
A light laugh escaped her lips. "Actually, that is a substantial comfort. — Brooklyn Ann