The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue Quotes

“The bricks tear at my coat like briars as I pull his hips to mine so I can feel him going stiff.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Well, one is illegal. And a sin. And the other is also a sin, if you aren’t married to her.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“When he speaks again, his tone is nearer to reverence, a voice for saints and sacred places.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“There are bodies buried beneath the flagstones of my parents' estate, and some graves never green.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“It’s a Venetian name—Baseggio. A patronymic from a Venetian diminutive of the surname Basile. Perhaps you might begin your search there.” “A patronymic diminutive of . . . that, yes.” I understand less than half the words in that sentence, but God bless the book people for their boundless knowledge absorbed from having words instead of friends. “Yes, thank you. I’ll try that.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Oh yes, am I a sodomite. Well, I’ve been with lads, so… yes.”
She purses her lips, and I wish I hadn’t been so forthright. “If you’d stop, Father might not be so rough on you, you know.”
“Oh my, thank you for that earth-shattering wisdom. Can’t believe I didn’t think of that myself.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“The world could have been a blank canvas and I still would have been exactly this livid with happiness, just to be with him.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“And now Percy has his arms around me and Santorini and the sea are spread like a feast before us and there is sky all the way to the horizon.

And what a sky it is.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Hollow yourself or the fear eats you alive.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“My hands are upon his face, mirror to the spot where I’ll carry red, puckered scars for the rest of my life. In his gaze, they seem to matter less. We are not broken things, neither of us. We are cracked pottery mended with lacquer and flakes of gold, whole as we are, complete unto each other. Complete and worthy and so very loved.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Percy rests his chin on top of my head, his hands on my shoulders as we too turn our faces to the shore. 'Did you know—' he says.

'Oh, are we playing the did you know game?'

'Did you know this year is not going to be a disaster?'

'I don’t believe it.'

'It is not going to be a disaster,' he repeats overtop of me, 'because it is you and I and the Continent and not even Lockwood or your father can wreck it completely. I promise.'

He nudges the side of my head with his nose until I consent to look up at him, then does that tipped-head smile again, and I swear to God it's so adorable I forget my own damn name.

'France on the horizon, Captain,' I say.

'Steel thyself, mate,' he replies.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“I wish I could be better for you." She looks over at me, and I duck my head, shame sinking its teeth in. "I'm older and I know I'm supposed to be... an example, I don't know. At least someone you aren't embarrassed of." "You do fine." "I don't." "You're right, you don't. But you're getting better. And that isn't nothing.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“I don’t think he was allowed to take supper with them when they had company, but, with some exceptions of that sort, they’ve been first-rate to him.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“And we are looking at each other, just looking, and I swear there are whole lifetimes lived in those small, shared seconds.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“In their poor imitation of French fashion, they look like pastries in a bakery window at the end of the day, trying a bit too hard to be beautiful as they wilt.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“have a history of reacting poorly when shouted at,”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“The first step will be unlearning all the things you’ve taught me for my entire life. It took several thousand miles for me to begin believing that I am better than the worst things I’ve done. But I’m starting.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“We’re not courting trouble. Flirting with it, at most. (Monty in The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue)”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“I let out a shy laugh, flit my eyes down to the floor, then back to him through my lashes. His neck goes a little red. Fan-bloody-tastic.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Epilepsy,” he repeats, then covers his face with his hands so it comes out muffled when he says it again. “I have epilepsy.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“It’s beginning to feel like he’s shuffling his way through the seven deadly sins, in ascending order of my favorites.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“is remarkable how much courage it takes to kiss someone, even when you are almost certain that person would very much like to be kissed by you. Doubt will knock you from the sky every time.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“There is nothing good about watching another man claim your ship because your skin is too dark to do it yourself,” he says, each word a glancing wound. “So in future, you needn’t demand apologies on my behalf. Now, you’re underfoot.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“I think of my father - not him swinging at me, but of all the times he's told me how pathetic I am. How useless and hopeless and embarrassing I am, good for nothing and will amount to nothing and nothing, nothing, nothing - reason after reason until I had begun to believe it wasn't worth putting up my hands.
And here's Scipio, telling me I'm worth defending.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Shout at me," I want to tell him. "Fight back, because I deserve it." I deserve to be fed all the ways I’ve made him feel unwanted, slapped with my own selfishness. But he’s Percy, so he doesn’t say another cruel word. Even at his worst, he’s so much better than me.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Have you?”
“Have I what?”
“Ever fancied someone?”
“Oh. Well, yes.”
“Girls?”
“Yes.”
“Lads?”
“Also yes.”
“Percy?”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Everyone falls in immediate, passionate love with you.”
“They can hardly be blamed. I’d fall in love with me, if I met me.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Perfecting my phrasing without betraying my heart is starting to feel like a complicated dance.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“I'm desperate not to let all my stupid hope fill the silence between us but it's filtering in anyway, like water running through the canyons that longing has spent years carving.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“I'm caught between wanting to smack the pox patches off this woman's face and to smack Percy because I'm still angry about our kiss. Perhaps I could get them both with a wide swing.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue