The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue Quotes

“And exhaustion is a houseguest that has overstayed its welcome.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“I think I’m going to have worse than revising scripture to answer for when He and I meet.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“a strange feeling, realizing that other people you don’t know have their own full lives that don’t touch yours.”
― 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.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“I’ve always been of the mind that subtlety is a waste of time.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“No shame in that. If the Good Lord didn't want men to play with themselves, we'd have hooks for hands. Still, I'd rather not be keeping myself company from owning until next September. God, this is going to be a disaster." I look to him, hoping for some sort of despair that is at least on a comparable level with mine - I thought we were all operating under the same understanding that this year was to be for Percy and me to do as we pleased before he goes to school and I load stones in my pockets and throw myself into the ocean - but instead he's looking aggravatingly pleased.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“We were just sober enough to think we were subtle about it and just tipsy enough that we were likely as subtle as a symphony.”
― 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

“Don't drink too much."
"Could I get an absolute value on too much?”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Please," Mother is saying to her, though Felicity's staring into the sun like she's more interested in going blind than in taking maternal counsel.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Kiss for good luck?"
I lean in, but Percy puts the fiddle case between us with a laugh. "Good try, Monty.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“She has one of her amatory novels propped against a crytsal jam pot, a serving fork wedged between the pages to hold it open. "That'll melt your brain, Felicity," I say as I drop into the seat beside her.
"Not as fast as gin will," she replies without looking up.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“He tries to roll over, finds me in his path, keeps rolling anyways, and ends up on top of me.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“I thinnk about winking as well, which is, admittedly, a tad excessive, but I've always been of the mind that subtlety is a waste of time. Fortune favors the flirtatious.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“He shows up out of nowhere -"
"Not sure you can claim out of nowhere -"
"- and then cries all the while and wakes us and takes up space."
"The nerve."
"You're not being very sympathetic."
"You're not giving me many reasons to be."
I throw a pillow at him, which he's still too sleep to bat away in time, so it hits him straight in the face.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“We used to run a string,” Mateu says, fingers walking the stitchery upon the hem, “between her room and ours, one end knotted to her finger, and the other to mine. And in the night, she could give that string a tug, and I would tug back. And then she’d know I was still there.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“What’s the use of temptations if we don’t yield to them?” “That’ll be chiseled upon your tombstone.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Percy twists a lock of my hair between his fingers, a soft smile teasing his lips. My heart kicks again, so hard I have to catch my breath. It’s unfair that I can nearly always tell when someone’s making eyes at me, except when it comes to Percy, as we’ve always been rather hands-on with each other. Impossible now, after so long, to ask him not to be without admitting why. Can’t seal up a conversation with a casual Oh, by the way, could you perhaps not touch me the way you always have because each time it puts fresh splinters in my heart? Particularly when what I’d really like to say is Oh, by the way, could you please keep touching me, and perhaps do it all the time, and while we’re at it, would you like to take off all your clothes and climb in bed? They’re both weighted alike.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

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