Dorothy Dunnett Quotes

Quotes about:

• Man is a being of varied, manifold and inconstant nature. And woman, by God, is a match for him.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Men, Manifold

  Dorothy Dunnett (1999). “The Disorderly Knights: The Lymond Chronicles Book Three”, p.467, Penguin UK

  49 Copy quote

• But I despised men who accepted their fate. I shaped mine twenty times and had it broken twenty times in my hands.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Fate, Men, Hands

  Dorothy Dunnett (1999). “The Game Of Kings: The Lymond Chronicles Book One”, p.467, Penguin UK

  18 Copy quote

• For an hour, blended with all she could offer, something noble had been created which had nothing to do with the physical world. And from the turn of his throat, the warmth of his hair, the strong, slender sinews of his hands, something further; which had. Though she combed the earth and searched through the smoke of the galaxies there was no being she wanted but this, who was not and should not be for Philippa Somerville.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  True Love, Strong, Hair

  12 Copy quote

• Look up . . . and see them.
  The teaching stars,
  beyond worship
  and commonplace tongues.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Stars, Teaching, Looks

  Dorothy Dunnett (1999). “The Game Of Kings: The Lymond Chronicles Book One”, p.194, Penguin UK

  10 Copy quote

• My son took many years to learn the simple truth. You cannot love any one person adequately until you have made friends with the rest of the human race also. Adult love demands qualities which cannot be learned living in a vacuum of resentment.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Son, Simple, Race

  9 Copy quote

• And habits are hell's own substitute for good intentions. Habits are the ruin of ambition, of initiative , of imagination. They're the curse of marriage and the after-bane of death.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Ambition, Imagination, Ruins

  17 Copy quote

• Lack of genius never held anyone back. Only time wasted on resentment and daydreaming can do that.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Genius, Resentment, Wasting Time

  6 Copy quote

• Music, the knife without a hilt.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Knives

  Dorothy Dunnett (1999). “Checkmate: The Lymond Chronicles Book Six”, p.454, Penguin UK

  4 Copy quote

• I would give you my soul in a blackberry pie; and a knife to cut it with.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Cutting, Knives, Pie

  12 Copy quote

• The coast's a jungle of Moors, Turks, Jews, renegades from all over Europe, sitting in palaces built from the sale of Christian slaves. There are twenty thousand men, women and children in the bagnios of Algiers alone. I am not going to make it twenty thousand and one because your mother didn't allow you to keep rabbits, or whatever is at the root of your unshakable fixation." "I had weasels instead," said Philippa shortly. "Good God," said Lymond, looking at her. "That explains a lot.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Christian, Mother, Children

  8 Copy quote

• Facts are the soil from which the story grows. Imagination is a last resort.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Imagination, Stories, Lasts

  7 Copy quote

• Where are the links of the chain ... joining us to the past?

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Past, Joining, Links

  8 Copy quote

• Today,’ said Lymond, ‘if you must know, I don’t like living at all. But that’s just immaturity boggling at the sad face of failure. Tomorrow I’ll be bright as a bedbug again.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Immaturity, Today, Faces

  6 Copy quote

• I wish to God,” said Gideon with mild exasperation, “that you’d talk—just once—in prose like other people.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  People, Wish, Gideon

  Dorothy Dunnett (1999). “The Game Of Kings: The Lymond Chronicles Book One”, p.375, Penguin UK

  5 Copy quote

• It seems to me,’ said Philippa prosaically, ‘that on the whole we run more risks with Mr Crawford’s protection than without it.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Running, Risk, Protection

  7 Copy quote

• And the English army, wheeling, started south at a gallop over the hill pass into Ettrick, followed by twenty men and eight hundred sheep in steel helmets.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Army, Men, Sheep

  5 Copy quote

• Repressively, Lymond himself answered. “I dislike being discussed as if I were a disease. Nobody ‘got’ me,” he said.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Disease, Said, Ifs

  5 Copy quote

• But it's also because of something personal. My mother and father met while playing chess, so I've always had a fondness for the game. If it weren't for chess, I might not be here.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Mother, Father, Games

  8 Copy quote

• So she was on her own, Kate thought, and instilled all the friendly helpfulness she could into her next question. “Excuse me, but are you the bad company young Mr. Scott has got into?

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Friendly, Next, Excuse

  Dorothy Dunnett (1999). “The Game Of Kings: The Lymond Chronicles Book One”, p.214, Penguin UK

  8 Copy quote

• Versatility is one of the few human traits which are universally intolerable. You may be good at Greek and good at painting and be popular. You may be good at Greek and good at sport, and be wildly popular. But try all three and you’re a mountebank. Nothing arouses suspicion quicker than genuine, all-round proficiency.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Sports, Greek, Trying

  10 Copy quote

• If I can’t be personal, I don’t want to argue,” said his hostess categorically. “I may be missing your points, but you’re much too busy dodging mine.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Missing, May, Want

  5 Copy quote

• He regards boredom, I observe, as the One and Mighty Enemy of his soul. And will succeed in conquering it, I am sure—if he survives the experience.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Boredom, Soul, Enemy

  Dorothy Dunnett (1999). “The Disorderly Knights: The Lymond Chronicles Book Three”, p.43, Penguin UK

  8 Copy quote

• Only common mortals like the Somervilles have good old rotten hates, dear,' said her mother. 'Sir Graham manages to love everybody and wouldn't know what you're talking about. Have a bun.' 'He doesn't love the Turks,' said Philippa. 'He kills them.' 'That isn't hate,' said Kate Somerville. 'That's simply hoeing among one's principles to keep them healthy and neat. I'm sure he would tell you he bears them no personal grudge; and they think they're going to Paradise anyway, so it does everyone good.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Love, Mother, Hate

  8 Copy quote

• Oh, well. Everyone else has suave, cosmopolitan sheep: why not us? The Millers at Hepple have a ewe that’s been to Kelso three times, and they’ve never been farther than Ford in their lives.” Kate peered absently into the farm pond, and clucked again. “Thoughtless creatures. They’ve forgotten the fish.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Sheep, Three, Ponds

  7 Copy quote

• Did I ever tell you,’ said Lymond pausing on the afterthought, on his way to the flap, ‘that that aunt of mine once hatched an egg?’ He paused, deep in thought, and walked slowly to the door before turning again. His lordship of Aubigny, staring after the vanishing form of his brother, received the full splendour of Lymond’s smile. ‘It was a cuckoo,’ said Francis Crawford prosaically, and followed Lennox out.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Brother, Aunt, Doors

  5 Copy quote

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