Daisy Goodwin > Quotes

“... anyone can acquire wealth, the real art is giving it away.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The American Heiress

“I was so happy … before.’
‘I find that happiness can always be recollected in tranquillity, Ma’am,’ said Melbourne.
Victoria put her hands down and looked up at him, her pale blue eyes searching his face. ‘You were happy too?’
When Melbourne spoke, it was in the voice not of the urbane Prime Minister, but of a man of advancing years who is facing the loss of the only thing that is still capable of bringing him joy. ‘You know I was, Ma’am.”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria

“i know that i am young, but i am ready for the great responsibility that lies before me.”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria

“In the Blue Room, Cora Cash was trying to concentrate on her book. Cora found most novels hard to sympathise with -- all those plain governesses -- but this one had much to recommend it. The heroine was 'handsome, clever, and rich', rather like Cora herself. Cora knew she was handsome -- wasn't she always referred to in the papers as 'the divine Miss Cash'? She was clever -- she could speak three languages and could handle calculus. And as to rich, well, she was undoubtedly that. Emma Woodhouse was not rich in the way that she, Cora Cash, was rich. Emma Woodhouse did not lie on a lit à la polonaise once owned by Madame du Barry in a room which was, but for the lingering smell of paint, an exact replica of Marie Antoinette's bedchamber at le petit Trianon. Emma Woodhouse went to dances at the Assembly Rooms, not fancy dress spectaculars in specially built ballrooms. But Emma Woodhouse was motherless which meant, thought Cora, that she was handsome, clever, rich and free.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The American Heiress

“Duets are not about individual skill but about the relationship between the two players.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The American Heiress

“there is nothing wrong in talking quietly; it only makes people listen harder.”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria

“...when I see you here amidst all this, I realise that I proposed to a very small part of you. I thought I was giving you a home and a position, but here I see that I am taking you away from so much.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The American Heiress

“I was waiting at table tonight, on account of it being such a big party, and just as I was coming round with the savoury, one of the ladies went and broke her necklace by fidgeting with it at the ta ble. She thought she picked 'em all up but this one rolled under my foot and I stood on it tight until all the ladies went upstairs. I wanted to give it to you. You're a black pearl, Bertha, that's what you are and it's only right that you should have it.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The American Heiress

“I told you, you're my black pearl. When i first set eyes on you in the servant's hall I thought you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The American Heiress

“She longed for a letter that was for her and her alone, a letter which would give her some glimpse into his heart.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The American Heiress

“i am referred to as Alexandrina Victoria. But i do not like the name Alexandrina. From now on i wish to be called Victoria.”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria

“Emma shook her head. “There are some things that a woman always keeps to herself.” She smiled at Melbourne. “I never told Portman, for example, that I only accepted him because the man I really loved could never be my husband.”
“Emma!” He felt tears coming to his eyes, unbidden and unwelcome. “I had no idea.”
“It was a long time ago, William, and I am not that girl any longer. But I remember how she felt.” She smiled at him. “And that is how I know that, for Victoria, they will always be your flowers.”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria

“In the end to add to the sum of human knowledge is the only thing a man can be truly proud of.”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria

“But you must remember that they are Viennese and nobody is good enough for the Viennese.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The Fortune Hunter

“The English were infuriating. Everything was designed to put an outsider at a disadvantage. If you had to ask, you didn't belong.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The American Heiress

“Happiness is a talent.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The American Heiress

“stared at Victoria with great intensity. Lifting her head with an agonizing effort, she said, “To be a queen, you have to be more than a little girl with a crown.” And then Flora subsided back onto the pillows, spent, a dribble of saliva leaking from the corner of her mouth. Victoria felt Flora’s words burning across her forehead. Impulsively she reached down and picked up the invalid’s hand and pressed it to her lips. The flesh felt cold and waxy, as if already belonging to a corpse. Flora did not stir, the only sign that she was still alive the terrible rhythm of the jagged breaths. Victoria put down the cold hand and backed away towards the door. Melbourne was waiting for her outside. “You weren’t in there”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria

“She knew that people generally behaved only as well as they had to.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The American Heiress

“But a man will only make you happy for a while, while a skill, an occupation – learning something – will always satisfy you.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The Fortune Hunter

“The first thing to realize is that it is is a country that is still being imagined. Here every patch of earth has a story, all your places have nuances; if you say Cornwall to an English person, they think of smugglers, and King Arthur and fish. But there are great parts of my country about which American's know nothing beyond an idea of unimaginable vastness. Of course the Indians that live there know the spirits of these places, but that is not the point. You can't imagine how blue the sky is out West, Charlotte. So much space. It's really wild, not like your Lake District with its little stone walls. In the West the landscape is unmarked by man.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The Fortune Hunter

“Is that all I have to look forward to? Comfort? I think I should prefer to be happy.” “As you grow older, there is a lot to be said for being comfortable, ma’am. But I don’t expect you to believe me. When I was your age I too wanted to be happy.”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria

“Men are all very well, and a good husband can be enormously useful, but women like us need something to do.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The Fortune Hunter

“Moderation He that holds fast the golden mean, And lives contentedly between    The little and the great, Feels not the wants that pinch the poor, Nor plagues that haunt the rich man’s door    Embittering all his state Horace, from Odes, Book II, translated by William Cowper”
― Daisy Goodwin, 101 Poems to Get You Through the Day

“the postal official, said, ‘Pray continue, Mr Hill.’ Hill took a deep breath. ‘In answer to your question, Ma’am, as to why the postage should cost the same no matter the distance travelled, I say this: should a girl in Edinburgh writing to her sweetheart in London pay more than the one who lives in Ealing? Should the merchant in Manchester pay more to write to”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria

“You do want to see him, but at the same time you don’t. He attracts and repels you equally.”
― Daisy Goodwin, The Fortune Hunter

“The smell of the flowers, the weight of Victoria against him, the flickering candlelight—Albert felt his heart give way. As he pressed his lips to hers and felt them respond with such eagerness, he knew he had found the piece that had always been missing. He put his hands around her waist and pulled her to him, and they kissed until they had to stop to breathe.”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria

“Albert also challenged tradition by attending the births of his children.”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria & Albert: A Royal Love Affair

“Do you know what I saw the other day near that fine thoroughfare called Regent Street? A child, maybe three or four years old, selling matches, one at a time. Your Lord Melbourne chooses not to look at these things, but I must. That is the question, Victoria. Do you want to see things as they are, or as you would like them to be?”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria

“there was the general belief that young unmarried women were susceptible to hysteria, which could only be cured by marriage and motherhood.”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria

“Is that what you call yourself, a photographer?” “Yes, sir, from the Greek—photos meaning light and graphos meaning to draw. I like to think of myself as painting with light.”
― Daisy Goodwin, Victoria