Courting Quotes

“Ô, Wanderess, Wanderess
When did you feel your
most euphoric kiss?
Was I the source
of your greatest bliss?”
― Roman Payne

“Tessa exploded "I am not asking you to maul me in the Whispering Gallery! By the Angel, Will, would you stop being so polite?!"
He looked at her in amazement. "But wouldn't you rather-"
"I would not rather. I don't want you to be polite! I want you to be Will! I don't want you to indicate points of architectural interest to me as if you were a Baedecker guide! I want you to say dreadfully mad, funny things, and make up songs and be-" The Will I fell in love with, she almost said. "And be Will," she finished instead. "Or I shall strike you with my umbrella."
"I am trying to court you," Will said in exasperation. "Court you properly. That's what all this has been about. You know that, don't you?"
"Mr. Rochester never courted Jane Eyre," Tessa pointed out.
"No, he dressed up as a woman and terrified the poor girl out of her wits. Is that what you want?"
"You would make a very ugly woman."
"I would not. I would be stunning."
Tessa laughed. "There," she said. "There is Will. Isn't that better? Don't you think so?"
"I don't know," Will said, eyeing her. I'm afraid to answer that. I've heard that when I speak, it makes American women wish to strike me with umbrellas."
Tessa laughed again, and then they were both laughing, their smothered giggles bouncing off the walls of the Whispering Gallery. After that, things were decidedly easier between them, and Will's smile when he helped her down from the carriage on their return home, was bright and real.”
― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Princess

“She was so delicate that, while we sat beneath the linden branches, a leaf would fall and drift down and touch her skin, and it would leave a bruise. So as we sat in the afternoon hour, beneath that fragrant linden bower, I had to chase all of the leafs that fell away.”
― Roman Payne

“Curse him for being all tight muscle, with ivory skin and a mouth as soft as rose petals. Curse him for having hair as fair as the sun, and eyes as black as night. Curse him for having the grace of a cat and deft, cool hands.

And now I am having the same argument on paper that I have in my own head on too many nights. I know my choice is sensible, but it isn't my common sense I think with, those times Rosto's stolen a kiss from me.”
― Tamora Pierce, Bloodhound

“God will bring the right person into your life at the right time. Always believe that! If they are not there, God isn't finished yet!”
― Shannon L. Alder

“My mind may be sober, but my confidence is high!”
― Habeeb Akande

“I profess not to know how women’s hearts are wooed and won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration. Some seem to have but one vulnerable point, or door of access; while others have a thousand avenues, and may be captured in a thousand different ways. It is a great triumph of skill to gain the former, but a still greater proof of generalship to maintain possession of the latter, for man must battle for his fortress at every door and window. He who wins a thousand common hearts is therefore entitled to some renown; but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette is indeed a hero.”
― Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

“The less we love her when we woo her,
The more we draw a woman in,”
― Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin

“I took her to bed with silk and song
'Lay still, my love, I won’t be long,
I must prepare my body for passion.'
'O, your body you give, but all else you ration...”
― Roman Payne

“That's good. And speaking of spelling, tell me -- do you wrap your head in a towel after you shower?”
― Nicholas Sparks, A Bend in the Road

“Familiarity destroys reverence.”
― Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady

“I've always thought of being in love as being willing to do anything for the other person--starve to buy them bread and not mind living in Siberia with them--and I've always thought that every minute away from them would be hell--so looking at it that way, I guess I'm not in love with you.

[Letter to suitor, R. Beverley Corbin, Jr.
20 January 1947]”
― Jackie Kennedy Onassis

“All over Atlanta that fall, in the blue twilights, girls came clicking home from their jobs in their clunky heels and miniskirts and opened their apartment windows to the winesap air, and got out ice cubes, and put on Petula Clark singing 'Downtown', and sat down to wait.

Soon the young men would come, drifting out of their bachelor apartments in Bermuda shorts and Topsiders, carrying beers and gin and tonics, looking for a refill and a a date and the keeping of promises that hung in the bronze air like fruit on the eve of ripeness.”
― Anne Rivers Siddons, Down Town

“Has she glanced you way yet?"
Twice," Nick said on a note of satisfaction.
Meaning?"
Nick glanced at him. "She's not completely disinterested."
I see Moreland. That makes it an even half dozen hanging out for a rich wife. Four looking for their second. Rossman, the old satyr, certainly isn't likely to be much competition. What in the hell does he think he's doing anyway? He must be sixty."
Basking, I should think. She hasn't given him the cold shoulder yet," Nick responded coolly.”
― Jaide Fox, His Wicked Ways

“You're wearing a bow tie," I said necessarily.
He glanced over at me. "Mom said I had to dress up for this."
I heard a low snort of laughter coming through the open window above the sink.
And I knew.
I stalked over to the window and looked outside.
There, sitting spread out on the grass, were the rest of the Bennetts.
Goddamn fucking werewolves.
"Hello, Ox," Elizabeth said without a jint of shame. "Lovely day, isn't it?"
"I will deal with you late," I said.
Ooh," Carter said. "I actually got chills from that."
"We're just here for support," Kelly said. "And to laugh at how embarrassing Joe is."
"I heard that!" Joe shouted from behind me.
I banged my head on the windowsill.
"Maggie," Joe said. Then, "May I call you Maggie?"
"Sure." My mother sound like she was enjoying this. The traitor. "You can call me Maggie."
"Good," Joe glanced down at his card berfore looking back up at my mother. " There comes a time in every werewolf's life when he is of age to make certain decisions about his future."
I wondered if I threw something at him if it'd distract him enough for me to drag him out of the kitchen. I glanced over my shoulder out the window. Cater waved at me. Like an asshole.
"My future," Joe said, "is Ox."
Ah god, that made me ache. “Is that so?” Mom asked. “How do you figure?” “He’s really nice,” Joe said seriously. “And smells good. And he makes me happy. And I want to do nothing more than put my mouth on him.” “Ah well,” Thomas said. "We tried."
"He's our little snowflake," Elizabeth told him.
"You want to do what?!" I asked Joe incredulously.
He winced. "I didn't mean to say it like that.”
― T.J. Klune, Wolfsong

“She asked him to come in, if only for a minute, as it would seem so odd otherwise, and as if she had been out alone in the dark. He gave way, and followed her in. Immediately that the door was opened he found, in addition to her parents, several neighbours sitting round. They all spoke in a congratulatory manner, and took him seriously as Arabella's intended partner.
They did not belong to his set or circle, and he felt out of place and embarrassed. He had not meant this: a mere afternoon of pleasant walking with Arabella, that was all he had meant. He did not stay longer than to speak to her stepmother, a simple, quiet woman without features or character; and bidding them all good night plunged with a sense of relief into the track over the down.
But that sense was only temporary: Arabella reasserted her sway in his soul. He walked as if he felt himself to be another man from the Jude of yesterday. What were his books to him? what were his intentions, hitherto adhered to so strictly, as to not wasting a single minute of time day by day? 'Wasting!' It depended on your point of view to define that: he was just living for the first time: not wasting life. It was better to love a woman than to be a graduate, or a parson; ay, or a pope!”
― Thomas Hardy , Jude the Obscure

“Because Mom said it was nice to do and would get on her good side when I asked her if it'd be ok that I kept you for the rest of my life," Joe explained. Then his eyes widened. "Shit. That wasn't supposed to come out like that."
"Oh my god," I said faintly.
"You want to keep him how long now?" Mom asked, squinting at Joe.
"Uhh," Joe said. "crap. This isn't going like I wanted it to. I had everything I needed to say planned out. Hold on."He reached down and pulled a notecard from his pocket. It was rumpled, the corner ripped. He stared down at it, mouth moving silently as he read whatever the hell he'd written on it.”
― T.J. Klune, Wolfsong

“Finding a feminine woman today is like trying to find a needle in a haystack while blind-folded and wearing gloves.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“You've been seduced with poetry? Wow. I'm envious. No guy's ever tried anything as classy as that on me."

"If only you could visit the eighteenth century, Highvalley. You would learn what it is to be courted properly.”
― Molly Ringle, Lava Red Feather Blue

“Whether they give or refuse, it delights women just the same to have been asked.”
― Ovid

“Six months into our correspondence, he asked me to send him a picture. Eight months in his postcard read, ‘The very first moment I beheld you, my heart was irrevocably gone.’ ​It wasn’t until just a few years ago that Shari informed me this was actually a phrase he stole from Jane Austen’s Love and Friendship. I think the fact that he quoted Jane Austen may have made me fall a little bit more in love with him—even all these years later.”
― Natasha Metzler, The Marrieds and their Reasons: A Prequel Novella

“I have brought a beautiful bouquet of flowers for you today, m'lady. Will you do me the honor of accepting them? Though, of course, when held up against your radiant beauty, my princess...
... even lovely flowers such as these...
... are reduced to mere garnishes that only highlight your exquisiteness even more."
"Er! I-I-Instructor Suzuki!"
"So, yeah! Anyways... staying cooped up inside battling paperwork all day will wear you out. I brought along a handful of snacks...
... so how about we have ourselves a little tea break, hm?"
"Ah! I-Instructor Suzuki, please! You must cease coming here every day like this!
I-I am the foremost executive and leader of this Institute! I cannot in good conscience accept such personal gifts! Kyaaa!"
"Miss Erina!"
"Whoops! You okay?
Princess...
There.
You had a cheese stick stuck in your hair.”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 32 [Shokugeki no Souma 32]

“I do love you though--and can love you without kissing you every time I see you and I hope you understand that.

[Letter to her suitor, R. Beverley Corbin, Jr, 10 October 1946]”
― Jackie Kennedy Onassis

“Make sure you wear it on the left side. That means you're single and ready for new adventures. 'Left is for looking, right is for cooking.'"
Lisbeth giggles, almost blushes, and lifts her hand to her head reflexively. She's seen women on the street with flowers behind their ears, along the road, in stores, on their way home from the fields carrying baskets of cassava, the yellowish white root that's used in every meal. She's seen the red hibiscus, the bulging ginger blossom, the bewitchingly aromatic frangipani behind the ears of men too, but she wasn't aware of this secret code for courting.”
― Anne Østby, Pieces of Happiness

“Just because you love someone doesn't mean you have to be in a relationship with them.”
― James Thomas Kesterson Jr

“As far as she'd discovered, she could have any man in the world, and for that, she would settle for no man on earth.”
― Criss Jami

“There is a deeper reason as to why some nice guys are frequently deemed the weaker, and that is because niceness is weaker than love.”
― Criss Jami

“I am a gentleman and like a good dog, a gentleman comes when a woman beckons him.”
― J.R. Potts, Gathering of the Crimson Cloaks

“In the kitchen Bobo is making dinner and asking questions, because his mother taught him that those are the two best ways of courting a girl: "Because girls aren't used to either of them.”
― Fredrik Backman, The Winners

“So what do you talk about?' I asked.
One of them replied: 'This and that.'
On this basis I could not deduce whether these conversations are interesting or boring, because I do not possess the Egyptological talent that can derive the stormy history of a dynasty from a single hieroglyph”
― Ryszard Kapuściński, Busz po polsku