Quotes About Dorothy Dunnett

And as he followed after the Irishwoman, Margaret Erskine, most levelheaded of women, picked up a Palissy vase, looked at it earnestly and smashed it clean on the floor.

Intolerance drunk is bad enough, but intolerance sober is quite insupportable.

Intelligence is the only indispensable commodity in life or in warfare. If you think otherwise, go live in a hut with a poet. The rest of us will do our best to defend you.

I find it so helpful," continued Lymond, "when some of my gentlemen have well-defined codes of conduct. It makes them more predictable.

What an extraordinary fuss there has been,' said the Dame de Doubtance raspingly, 'about that irresponsible Irishwoman and her improper child.

I echo like a mynah, that's why.

Age can mellow, they say.' 'They say wrong,' said Diccon Chancellor. 'I have known Mistress Philippa these two months, and I have aged while she has grown daily less mellow. Why else am I fleeing the country?

I have a suggestion in that case,' said Lymond. 'You two have the orgy, and I'll keep the drinker's headache.

Blaspheme if you must,' said Blyth wearily. 'You'll get your wages all right. You'll survive.' 'I'm not going to die of laughing at any rate,' said Lymond, and Blyth nearly lost his temper again.

Happiness, that most childish of states, is infectious. Furthermore, in its innocence, it will not be hidden, even when tempered with sorrow

If you don't mind.' 'I do,' said Kate. 'I don't care to have my second-best bedroom looking like the den of a hibernating bear.

He has to perfection, M. le Comte, the art of living his private life with as much public attention as possible.

I don't like being permanently mutilated on Thursdays. I may add that Friday is my day for raping; and I like it quieter than this, and they enjoy it.

It would have made a fitting tomb, she supposed, for Thady Boy Ballagh. That it was fitting for Francis Crawford she would not believe.

Venice….I think you may promise the Tsar what you like, for I do not think for a moment that Mary Tudor will agree. The Tsar needs munitions, but he needs trade and communication with the west even more.

You mean my reputation is ruined? No wealthy gentlemen suing for my favours?' 'No respectable wealthy gentlemen suing for your favours,' he said.

All I gathered from that is that Francis Crawford is a raging harlot.

It partook,' said Kate, 'of the nature of a full-scale cursing against one Crawford of Lymond, but whether for sins of omission or commission is not entirely clear.

What intelligent remedy, like jumping in the river, do you suggest if we find this man Lymond irreconcilably dreadful?

If you are asking, did Eloise make no effort to avoid the explosion which killed her, the answer is probably yes. If you are also asking, was I her lover, the answer is no. After all,' said Lymond, 'that would be incest.' And with a click, the door closed finally after him.

If you wish to carry this paper from France and deliver it into Lord Culter's hands,' he said, 'I know of no power which would stop you, unless an earthly one.' 'And that,' said Daniel Hislop, 'is the first totally accurate prediction I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. Give me that.

Right? said Lymond. You pathetic, maladroit nincompoop, you're never right.

You wouldn't expect me to make social calls if you had the remotest idea of the work entailed in bringing two unfortunate persons to the altar.' Careless words. 'It takes ten minutes, in my experience,' Lymond said.

THE ELEGANT WORKING out of designs historical and romantic, political and commercial, psychological and moral, over a multivolume novel is a Dorothy Dunnett specialty.