Lord Peter Wimsey Quotes

“How can I find the words? Poets have taken them all and left me with nothing to say or do"
"Except to teach me for the first time what they meant.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Busman's Honeymoon

“I always have a quotation for everything--it saves original thinking.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase

“I have the most ill-regulated memory. It does those things which it ought not to do and leaves undone the things it ought to have done. But it has not yet gone on strike altogether.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers

“But to Lord Peter the world presented itself as an entertaining labyrinth of side-issues”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“Lord Peter's library was one of the most delightful bachelor rooms in London. Its scheme was black and primrose; its walls were lined with rare editions, and its chairs and Chesterfield sofa suggested the embraces of the houris. In one corner stood a black baby grand, a wood fire leaped on a wide old-fashioned hearth, and the Sèvres vases on the chimneypiece were filled with ruddy and gold chrysanthemums. To the eyes of the young man who was ushered in from the raw November fog it seemed not only rare and unattainable, but friendly and familiar, like a colourful and gilded paradise in a mediæval painting”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Whose Body?

“And upon his return, Gherkins, who had always considered his uncle as a very top-hatted sort of person, actually saw him take from his handkerchief-drawer an undeniable automatic pistol.
It was at this point that Lord Peter was apotheosed from the state of Quite Decent Uncle to that of Glorified Uncle”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Lord Peter Views the Body

“Lord Peter Wimsey: Facts, Bunter, must have facts. When I was a small boy, I always hated facts. Thought they were nasty, hard things, all nobs.
Mervyn Bunter: Yes, my lord. My old mother always used to say...
Lord Peter Wimsey: Your mother, Bunter? Oh, I never knew you had one. I always thought you just sort of came along already-made, so it were. Oh, excuse me. How infernally rude of me. Beg pardon, I'm sure.
Mervyn Bunter: That's all right, my lord.
Lord Peter Wimsey: Thank you.
Mervyn Bunter: Yes indeed, I was one of seven.
Lord Peter Wimsey: That is pure invention, Bunter, I know better. You are unique. But you were going to tell me about your mater.
Mervyn Bunter: Oh yes, my lord. My old mother always used to say that facts are like cows. If you stare them in the face hard enough, and they generally run away.
Lord Peter Wimsey: By Jove, that's courageous, Bunter. What a splendid person she must be.
Mervyn Bunter: I think so, my lord.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“The bells gave tongue: Gaude, Sabaoth, John, Jericho, Jubilee, Dimity, Batty Thomas and Tailor Paul, rioting and exulting high up in the dark tower, wide mouths rising and falling, brazen tongues clamouring, huge wheels turning to the dance of the leaping ropes. Tin tan din dan bim bam bom bo--tan tin din dan bam bim bo bom--tan dan tin bam din bo bim bom--every bell in her place striking tuneably, hunting up, hunting down, dodging, snapping, laying her blows behind, making her thirds and fourths, working down to lead the dance again. Out over the flat, white wastes of fen, over the spear-straight, steel-dark dykes and the wind-bent, groaning poplar trees, bursting from the snow-choked louvres of the belfry, whirled away southward and westward in gusty blasts of clamour to the sleeping counties went the music of the bells--little Gaude, silver Sabaoth, strong John and Jericho, glad Jubilee, sweet Dimity and old Batty Thomas, with great Tailor Paul bawling and striding like a giant in the midst of them. Up and down went the shadows of the ringers upon the walls, up and down went the scarlet sallies flickering roofwards and floorwards, and up and down, hunting in their courses, went the bells of Fenchurch St. Paul.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, The Nine Tailors

“It's disquieting to reflect that one's dreams never symbolize one's real wishes, but always something Much Worse... If I really wanted to be passionately embraced by Peter, I should dream of dentists or gardening. I wonder what unspeakable depths of awfulness can only be expressed by the polite symbol of Peter's embraces?”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

“She reflected she must be completely besotted with Peter, if his laughter could hallow an aspidistra.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Busman's Honeymoon

“But -- my dear, my heart is BROKEN! I have seen the perfect Peter Wimsey. Height, voice, charm, smile, manner, outline of features, everything -- and he is -- THE CHAPLAIN OF BALLIOL!! What is the use of anything? ...

I am absolutely shattered by this Balliol business. Such waste -- why couldn't he have been an actor?”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist

“Bunter came with me in the role of a friend. A role he has always played to perfection."
"It does not require dissimulation, my lord," said Bunter.
"Thank you," said Peter.”
― Jill Paton Walsh, The Attenbury Emeralds

“His [Lord Peter's] long, amiable face looked as if it had generated spontaneously from his top hat, as white maggots breed from Gorgonzola.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers

“Harriet said, "You shouldn't have reminded me to sign that book, Peter."
"Why ever not? Have you suddenly become bashful about your hard-earned glories?"
"Because it watn's hers," said Harriet. "It was a library copy."
"Stroke of luck for the ratepaers of the City of Westminster," he said, grinning.”
― Jill Paton Walsh

“I sleuth, you know. For a hobby. Harmless outlet for natural inquisitiveness, don't you see, which might otherwise strike inward and produce introspection an' suicide. Very natural, healthy pursuit -- not too strenuous, not too sedentary; trains and invigorates the mind.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Unnatural Death

“And you, Mary, if you must run off to London, why do it in that unfinished manner, so that I was left without the car, and couldn't catch anything until the midnight train at Northallerton? It's so much better to do things neatly and properly, even stupid things.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“The banks of the Thirty-Foot held, but the swollen Wale, receiving the full force of the Upper Waters and the spring tide, gave at every point. Before the cars reached St. Paul, the flood was rising and pursuing them. Wimsey's car--the last to start--was submerged to the axles. They fled through the dusk, and behind and on their left, the great silver sheet of water spread and spread.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, The Nine Tailors

“The Lord has made us to be creative, and the sense of achievement will help to lift our spirits.”
― Shirley Corder, Strength Renewed: Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer

“Fou!” “Who?” “I didn’t say ‘who’; I said ‘fou,’ ” “I know you did. I said who?” “Who?” “Who’s fou?” “Oh, is. By Jove, ‘suis’! ‘Je suis fou.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“I have a peculiar instinct about pubs. I can find one blindfold in a pea-souper with both hands tied behind me.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

“Do you find it easy to get drunk on words?" "So easy that, to tell you the truth, I am seldom perfectly sober." Lord Peter Wimsey in Gaudy Night”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries

“I say - I don't mind betting this is the most popular thing Campbell ever did. Nothing in life became him like the leaving of it, eh, what?”
― Dorothy L. Sayers

“One of these days you’ll go too far, and somebody will murder you.' 'I shouldn’t be in the least surprised,' said Lord Peter, pleasantly.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, The Five Red Herrings

“I am abso-bally-lutely positive”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“Boil my brains!” said Lord Peter. “Boil ’em and mash ’em and serve ’em up with butter as a dish of turnips, for it’s damn well all they’re fit for! Look at me!”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness

“Exactly. He is the Most Unlikely Person, and that is why Sherlock Holmes would suspect him at once.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club