Mimi Matthews > Quotes

“Not very romantic, is it? But I don't want you to feel powerless with me. I value your intelligence and your strength. I'd rather you stood at my side than in my shadow.”
― Mimi Matthews, A Holiday by Gaslight

“A wounded animal will bite and claw,” she said to Mrs. Ogilvy. “And it often cannot tell friend from foe. One mustn’t judge such a creature too harshly.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Work of Art

“I don't know if I can let you dance with anyone else. Not without kissing you first.”
― Mimi Matthews, A Holiday by Gaslight

“Some stories are better the more you read them. You notice things you didn’t the first time. And not only that.” She hesitated. “Books you’ve already read are like old friends. It’s comforting to revisit them.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Belle of Belgrave Square

“Wonderful things didn’t happen because one was cautious. They happened because one dared.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Siren of Sussex

“I don't wish to be filed away in a neat little category, labeled and dismissed by society as if I weren't a person full of mysterious complexities. I don't even know the full depth and breadth of what I am yet—or what I'm capable of. How can a man? How can anyone?”
― Mimi Matthews, The Siren of Sussex

“If hardship came, she wouldn’t shatter into a million useless pieces. To the lucky gentleman who won her, she’d be a friend. A partner.”
― Mimi Matthews, A Holiday by Gaslight

“I dislike suffering for no purpose. Pain and sacrifice should come to something in the end. It should have meaning.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Matrimonial Advertisement

“Stories like the ones we read in novels help us understand the human condition,” he said. “They teach us empathy. In that way, they’re more than an escape from the world. They’re an aid for living in the world. For being better, more compassionate people.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Belle of Belgrave Square

“I don't think Id have enjoyed it if you'd simply grabbed me and kissed me. A lady likes to prepare herself for such an event."

"Fair enough. Are the next nine days enough time to prepare yourself? Because, unless you very strenuously object, I intend to kiss you this Christmas.”
― Mimi Matthews, A Holiday by Gaslight

“He bowed his head to hers. “Everything I have—everything I am—is yours.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Belle of Belgrave Square

“I value your intelligence and your strength. I’d rather you stood at my side than in my shadow.”
― Mimi Matthews, A Holiday by Gaslight

“Who says a lady must allow herself to be won? You didn't raise me to be anyone's prize.

I'm no less capable of choosing my future partner than a man. More capable, for I know what sort of person I might happily tolerate for the next forty or more years.”
― Mimi Matthews, Return to Satterthwaite Court

“You're beautiful".She returned both hands to the reins. Her horse tossed his head, sending the curb chain of his Pelham bit clinking. "I'm flattered you think so"." But beauty doesn't last"."Your kind will."She gave him a doubtful look. He gazed steadily back at her, as solemn as he'd ever been."I believe, maam, that you have a beautiful soul. That you are a beautiful soul. I don't expect that will alter with age."She stared at him for an instant, seemingly speechless. Her mouth trembled."What a lovely sentiment." He shrugged."It's the truth.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Belle of Belgrave Square

“I enjoyed our time together today very much. Truly I did. But no one can make anyone else happy. Not really. We all of us are responsible for our own happiness. Our own contentment. We can’t seek it in other people.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Viscount and the Vicar's Daughter

“For the first time in his life, Charles was being pursued by a lady. And such a lady!”
― Mimi Matthews, Return to Satterthwaite Court

“My dear fellow, this is a war,” Ridgeway said. “It’s the London season.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Belle of Belgrave Square

“The more deeply he felt something, the less he could articulate it. With Julia, he’d increasingly found himself reduced to grunts and growls.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Belle of Belgrave Square

“Knowledge is your greatest weapon,” she’d told them. “And books are knowledge made manifest.” Effie had found it to be true. Books enlarged one’s mind. They encouraged one to think. To feel. To understand. They could be more than that, too, when the occasion called for it. In the absence of community, books could be companions. They could be friends.”
― Mimi Matthews, Rules for Ruin

“But a man doesn’t change his character, dearest.” “I don’t expect him to change his character,” Hannah said. “My hope is that, given time, he’ll reveal it.”
― Mimi Matthews, A Lady of Conscience

“It’s not his responsibility to educate me. The ignorance is mine, and so must be the remedy for it.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Siren of Sussex

“Honor and integrity always make a difference,”
― Mimi Matthews, Return to Satterthwaite Court

“The point is,” she said, “I don’t need you to be noble. I only need you to be mine.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Matrimonial Advertisement

“You’re stronger than you appear, aren’t you? I look forward to the day you realize it for yourself.”
― Mimi Matthews, Appointment in Bath

“He liked her intensely. Her kindness. Her spirit. The way she laughed and teased him. He adored the glints of courage she possessed that were only recently beginning to glimmer through. Above all, he wanted her to shine.

He wanted her.”
― Mimi Matthews, Appointment in Bath

“No, it hadn’t been love, but it had been…something. Something warm and filled with promise. Something that was gone now, irrevocably, leaving him empty and alone.”
― Mimi Matthews, A Holiday by Gaslight

“An unknown place in some distant land can’t undo the tragedies of the past. If it could, we’d all be travelers, spending our natural lives on steamer ships and trains.”
― Mimi Matthews, A Modest Independence

“Never mind her heart. She had her dignity. Sometimes that was all a lady did have when everything else was gone.”
― Mimi Matthews, Appointment in Bath

“James had been invited to the Carletons' ball along with the rest of his family. He hadn't planned on attending. He'd already indulged his unwilling attraction to Hannah Heywood far more than was good for him.”
― Mimi Matthews, A Lady of Conscience

“The Duke of Moreland was an avid collector of anything rare and valuable. He had a particular attraction to those priceless objects that were one of a kind - highly coveted treasures that, if possess, would earn him the envy and admiration of other men. Indeed, many said his single-minded pursuit of such rarities pushed the limits of obsession and bordered on the edge of mania.”
― Mimi Matthews, The Work of Art