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Season 3 Quotes
Lady Whistledown: Dearest Gentle Reader, we have been apart for far too long. At last, London’s fashionable set has made its return. And so too has this author.
Benedict Bridgerton: [referring to Francesca] You do realize what tune she was playing just now, don’t you? Mozart’s “Funeral March.”
Benedict Bridgerton: [to Colin] Under what foreign sun did you apparently get so sturdy?
Colin Bridgerton: This time away was exactly what I needed. It has given me some sense of proportion.
Gregory Bridgerton: I should like some proportion.
Brimsley: Shall I fetch you a refreshment, Your Majesty?
Queen Charlotte: Perhaps a casket. The lack of interest here today shall usher me to an early grave at any moment.
Mrs. Varley: The truth has a way of rearing its ugly head.
Colin Bridgerton: If there is one thing I learned on my travels, it is forever to expect the unexpected.
Cressida Cowper: Is it not congenial to be back from the country? All that draft and emptiness.
Eloise Bridgerton: You do know others call that “fresh air”?
Penelope Featherington: You look distinguished. But, then again, you always have.
Colin Bridgerton: When all is said and done, it is merely clothing.
Lady Portia Featherington: What purpose would there be in telling either of you to make a son? You’re both married women. Must we tell a baker to bake?
Lady Portia Featherington: [to Penelope] I take comfort in knowing that you will always be here to take care of me.
Penelope Featherington: I cannot live at home any longer. It’s been hard enough living under my mother’s rules. But my sisters. To live at the whim of either the most cruel, or the most simple person I know. I must take a husband before that happens. It is time.
Eloise Bridgerton: I lost the battle, and I have no appetite for the war. So I’ve joined the winning side.
Lady Kathani ‘Kate’ Bridgerton: You do know that what we are doing is not how one makes an heir?
Lord Anthony Bridgerton: We have to start somewhere.
Lady Portia Featherington: [referring to Penelope] If she wants to wear such a melancholy color, that is her prerogative.
Queen Charlotte: A diamond is precious precisely because it is rare.
Penelope Featherington: Once one finds oneself on the wall, it is difficult to come off it. No matter what one does.
Francesca Bridgerton: At least the wall is not asking what makes me tick.
Penelope Featherington: Spinsters don’t need chaperones.
Colin Bridgerton: You are not a spinster.
Penelope Featherington: I am in my third year on the marriage mart, with no prospects to show for it. What would you call that?
Colin Bridgerton: Perhaps we should talk about this somewhere more private?
Penelope Featherington: Because I embarrass you? Of course you would never court me. I am the laughingstock of the ton, even when I change my entire wardrobe. It just never occurred to me that you, of all people, could be so cruel.
Colin Bridgerton: I am not the man I was last season. And I’m most certainly not ashamed of you, Pen. The opposite is true, in fact. I seek you out at every social assembly because I know you will lift my spirits and make me see the world in ways I could not have imagined. You are clever, and warm, and I am proud to call you my very good friend.
Colin Bridgerton: [to Penelope] There is nothing more I want than to earn back the favor of the one person who has always truly made me feel appreciated.
Lady Whistledown: I do not fear change. I embrace it.
Eloise Bridgerton: [referring to Lady Whistledown] Do you have any idea who she might be?
Colin Bridgerton: I do not. But trust me, if I ever find out, I will make sure it is her life that is ruined.
Lady Whistledown: Gentle Reader, it is said that fools rush to judge while the wise watch and wait.
Lady Whistledown: The truth is, that which some dismiss as common rock, time reveals to be precious stone. At other times, what appeared to be priceless, under pressure, shatters like glass.
Penelope Featherington: Colin, it is impossible to be in society and not care what others think. Society is entirely composed of the judgment of others.
Colin Bridgerton: Pen, living for the estimation of others is a trap. Once you break free, the world opens up.
Penelope Featherington: Deep inside, I know I can be clever and amusing, but somehow, my character gets lost between my heart and my mouth, and I find myself saying the wrong thing or, more likely, nothing at all.
Penelope Featherington: [to Colin] Your eyes are the most remarkable shade of blue. Yet, somehow, they shine even brighter when you are kind.
Colin Bridgerton: “In those moments alone, as my fingers trace freckles from cheek to collarbone, or as I watch the way starlight dances across skin, I marvel at how one can feel such intimacy, but also such great distance.”
Will Mondrich: I have been up against men in the ring who could have killed me, and yet I somehow find myself more nervous about tonight’s program of dancing and socializing.
Philipa Finch: I may be with child already. I must eat for two.
Prudence Dankworth: Your arrogance does not count as two people.
Philipa Finch: Inserts himself? Inserts himself where?
Lady Portia Featherington: Why must I be punished over and over?
Lady Portia Featherington: A life unmarried is not all bad. Trust me, men can often cause much more trouble than they are worth.
Lady Whistledown: Perhaps a return to the shadows is for the best. After all, a small taste of the light can lead to that most dangerous of emotions. Hope. And once hope is lost, a lady may become reckless.
Penelope Featherington: I do not wish to die without ever having been kissed. Please. Colin.
Colin Bridgerton: Pen, I have not been able to sleep, not been able to eat. I can barely speak these days. My entire thoughts consumed by our kiss. By you.
Penelope Featherington: I feel the same. You occupy my every thought.
Lady Whistledown: The higher one flies, the further one has to fall.
Philipa Finch: I do not think I will grow a belly when I am with child. I’ve always kept quite an elegant figure.
Prudence Dankworth: It’s not weight that produces a belly, it is the child itself.
Philipa Finch: What? Do you mean its little head and body inside me? Are you sure?
Will Mondrich: It is the mark of a good man to help a friend in need.
Penelope Featherington: So you’ve come to my hiding place. Welcome. Although, typically, only abject failures and social outcasts are allowed.
Cressida Cowper: I care very dearly for animals. I love a good fur.
Lady Tilley Arnold: I am sorry, but is this tent a balloon? Because you all are certainly filling it with air.
Colin Bridgerton: A man can be pensive, can he not?
Benedict Bridgerton: I took you for a woman who values ideas over brute strength.
Lady Tilley Arnold: Well, then you have misjudged me. I am all for brute strength. In fact, I much prefer it to aimless talking.
Colin Bridgerton: Well, I believe that courage is within us all. As long as we are honest with ourselves and about our feelings, it is possible to do anything.
Lord Debling: I do not wish to court someone exactly like myself. I want to be with someone who knows who they are and embraces their own peculiarity, as I do.
Lady Violet Bridgerton: It is rare to begin as friends and for both parties to then feel more.
Colin Bridgerton: And how did you and Father know it was reciprocated?
Lady Violet Bridgerton: Because he gathered the courage to ask.
Lady Whistledown: For in the battle between man and nature, it is quite clear that the battle is, in fact, between man and himself.
Eloise Bridgerton: I am in awe. I thought one had to use wit or banter to dissuade a suitor. But simple silence is radically more effective.
Eloise Bridgerton: Nothing a book loves more than to be collected.
Colin Bridgerton: It is tiring, is it not? The necessity imposed on us to remain cavalier about the one thing in life that holds genuine meaning. Do you not find it lonely?
Lady Portia Featherington: Oh, do not tell me you’re holding out for love. This is the very reason why I discouraged you from reading. Love is make-believe. It is only in your storybooks. Do you know what is romantic? Security.
Lady Violet Bridgerton: But living to please others? I imagine it can be wearying at times. Painful, perhaps. So, I do not blame you for putting on armor lately. But you must be careful that the armor does not rust and set so that you might never be able to take it off.
Lady Agatha Danbury: Past lives are dangerous places to revisit.
Cressida Cowper: You are unlike many people, Eloise. How is it you have the courage to be so different?
Eloise Bridgerton: It is not courage. I simply cannot understand why others do not see things the way I do.
Lord John Stirling: I am not a man of many words. And the words I do have, I am afraid they are not very good. But I do believe in the power of a gesture.
Lady Whistledown: It is said that the heart is forever making the head its fool. And when one chooses the heart over the head, often, all reason goes out of the window. But the body has a way, indeed, of knowing most what it needs. And this author is not one to deny the age-old wisdom of a beating heart.
Colin Bridgerton: I have spent so long trying to feel less, trying to be the kind of man society expects me to be. And for a moment, I thought I had succeeded. But these past few weeks have been full of confounding feelings. Feelings like a total inability to stop thinking about you. About that kiss. Feelings like dreaming of you when I’m asleep. And in fact preferring sleep because that is where I might find you. A feeling that is like torture. But one which I cannot, will not, do not want to give up.
Penelope Featherington: But. Colin, we are friends.
Colin Bridgerton: Yes, but we… Forgive me. I do not know what I was thinking.
Penelope Featherington: But I’d very much like to be more than friends. So much more.
Colin Bridgerton: Are you coming with me?
Penelope Featherington: What? Your family will see me.
Colin Bridgerton: For God’s sake, Penelope Featherington. Are you going to marry me or not?
Lady Whistledown: Dearest Reader. While most seasons of our fair marriage mart follow a predictable pattern, this author likes it most when there is a surprise.
Eloise Bridgerton: [to Penelope, referring to Colin] Until he knows the real you, he cannot possibly love you.
Philipa Finch: If we use our minds to read, there may not be enough wits left for the baby.
Prudence Dankworth: Mama must have read a great deal when she was pregnant with you then.
Lady Agatha Danbury: Who needs fresh air when there is fresh gossip?
Lord Anthony Bridgerton: [referring to Colin’s engagement to Penelope] Come now, you must admit, it’s all rather sudden.
Colin Bridgerton: The final part, the betrothal, it did all happen rather swiftly.
Lord Anthony Bridgerton: Ah, it’s swift because you…
Benedict Bridgerton: Are you going to duel with your own brother, or…
Colin Bridgerton: You must tell me to stop if you do not wish for this.
Penelope Featherington: I do not wish for you to stop
Colin Bridgerton: Was it alright?
Penelope Featherington: It was perfect. Can we do it again?
Colin Bridgerton: Give me five minutes. Maybe ten.
Eloise Bridgerton: And once again, I am left to face the fact that everyone eventually pairs off. While I too would rather be out riding. Metaphorically speaking. I do not much like horses.
Lady Kathani ‘Kate’ Bridgerton: There is no better feeling than the truth.
Genevieve Delacroix: There is no such thing as true love without first embracing your true self. Penelope Featherington: All of us talk. We gossip. Gossip is information. It forges bonds. Especially for those of us who are told so little. But I can no longer conceal the biggest piece of information I have. My identity. Colin Bridgerton: I think, in truth, I have been envious of you. Of your success. Of your bravery. And now I simply cannot believe that a woman with such bravery loves me. How lucky I am to stand by your side and soak up even a little bit of your light. If my only purpose in life is to love a woman as great as you, then I will be a very fulfilled man, indeed.
Benedict Bridgerton: I cannot tell if this party needs stronger drinks or weaker ones.
Eloise Bridgerton: [to Penelope] You had a good run for a while. But it is just gossip. Let it go.
Queen Charlotte: [to Cressida] I know Lady Whistledown as well as I know myself. Her greatest strength is that she is an observer. What have you observed in your life other than yourself?
Lady Portia Featherington: Ladies do not have dreams. They have husbands. And if you are lucky and you fulfill your role, sometimes what you wish for may come true through him.
Penelope Featherington: It is not just gossip. Whistledown is power.
Penelope Featherington: Writing was the only way I felt I could have a voice. And I should have been using the column to give a voice to the other voiceless. I have done plenty of damage with my pen. Please, let me use it now to do some good.
Colin Bridgerton: [after he finds out Penelope is Whistledown] I knew something was wrong. Stupidly, I blamed myself, as if I was undeserving of your love. But you are the one that is at fault. I will never forgive you.
Lady Whistledown: This author is not interested in judging what one does out of desperation. But gossip as I might, I always tell the truth, and I cannot tolerate a lie.
Philipa Finch: How many eyes exactly do you think there are in the ton?
Prudence Dankworth: Double the amount of people, I would imagine.
Lady Violet Bridgerton: I hope you know that my care for you is not contingent on your aid. I am here for you, Agatha. Always. Even when there are no unmarried children left to help.
Lady Agatha Danbury: Thank you, Violet. That means a great deal to me.
Lady Tilley Arnold: You know, we preen, and we promenade. We leave calling cards, and we marry. We play by all the rules. And rarely do we question the meaning of any of it for a moment. There is so much in society that is unnatural. But a feeling between two people, whatever their sex, is the most natural thing in the world.
Lord John Stirling: Well, if I am to be bold, I shall need some time to think about it.
Genevieve Delacroix: There is no going back to the past. All one can do is be true to one’s choices and look forward.
Penelope Featherington: I was thinking that I simply wanted the Colin I know back. Not this stoic man you returned as, acting as if you care for no one and need nothing. It’s you. Kind and feeling, occasionally excitable, good-hearted man who I love. I should have told you myself. There are so many things I should’ve done myself. And now, with the confidence you’ve helped me find this year, I am finally able to.
Penelope Featherington: Colin, I can take of myself.
Colin Bridgerton: Then what good am I to you?
Penelope Featherington: Colin, I love you! I love you.
Lady Kathani ‘Kate’ Bridgerton: [to Colin] Two glasses is celebratory. One whole bottle is a cry for help.
Lady Kathani ‘Kate’ Bridgerton: Marriage takes hard work. But it is work that is worth it.
Penelope Featherington: I have spent so long clinging to walls like this. I do not wish to do that any longer.
Colin Bridgerton: Where do you propose we go?
Penelope Featherington: Perhaps, to the center.
Penelope Featherington: [to Colin] Do you know what it is like to have nowhere in the world you can truly be yourself? You cannot possibly know because you are not a woman. You have the choice to be any kind of person you wish to be, while the only choice women have is to conceal the parts of ourselves the world will not accept. I am Whistledown. I will not change that.
Colin Bridgerton: There is Whistledown and then there is Penelope, who has experienced a kind of loneliness surely neither of us can fathom. Imagine being so ignored, you feel invisible. It does not excuse what she has done, but perhaps it is understandable that, at times, her column has reflected the cruelty around her.
Lady Agatha Danbury: You know. Yes?
Lady Violet Bridgerton: I know my father was a good man. And that you have been a very good friend. And that is all I need to know.
Lady Agatha Danbury: And my brother is a good man. And you are a good friend. And that is all I need to know as well.
Lady Portia Featherington: [to Penelope] What you have done, you have done entirely on your own.
Colin Bridgerton: How am I meant to help you?
Penelope Featherington: By loving me.
Penelope Featherington: You’ve given me so much already. You’ve taught me to hold my own. You have shown me I am capable of pleasure beyond imagination. But it is not what you do for me that makes me love you. It is your kindness. Your empathy. How much you care. Just being you is enough, Colin. I do not need you to save me. I just need you to stand by me. To hold me. To kiss me.
Eloise Bridgerton: I think it rather ordinary, in fact, that I find myself, yet again, swinging to and fro, not moving in any particular direction.
Benedict Bridgerton: Believe me, the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. It feels right now that the next thing I might learn may change me entirely.
Eloise Bridgerton: I agree profoundly with everything you’ve said, as I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
Penelope Featherington: [giving her speech at the ball after revealing her identity] I know it is no laughing matter what I have done. In the beginning, I never thought anyone would take my writing seriously. Why should they? No one has ever taken any part of me seriously. I only realize now how common that feeling must be. To be a young lady to whom no one listens.
Penelope Featherington: I wrote about all of you because I was captivated by you, living your lives so out in the open. And in writing about all of you, I suddenly felt as if I had a life. I had power. And for anyone in this room who has ever had a taste of that, they should know it can be intoxicating. But I was careless with that power.
Penelope Featherington: It was easy to cast aspersions from the shadows where I could not be found. But I see now how much courage it takes to live a life out in the open. To honor one’s weaknesses publicly for all to see. And to know, regardless of the outcome, one always has worth.
Penelope Featherington: That is why I am so very grateful to our queen for forcing me out of the shadows with her most cunning scheme. If she affords me the chance to continue, I mean to aim my quill more responsibly. That is my repentance and my plea.
Queen Charlotte: What is life without a little gossip?
Colin Bridgerton: Pen, ever since I found out you are Whistledown, I have done everything I can to try to separate you from her. But the other day, I went back and read all of the letters you have sent me. Your letters have always been the ones I am most eager to read. And I realized, you are her. You have always had one voice. There is no separating you from Whistledown. And after seeing you speak today, well, I would not want to. Because forgive me, but that was bloody brilliant.
Lady Whistledown: It has been quite a journey we have taken together. And so it is with the heaviest heart that I write this final, unbelievably short sentence as Lady Whistledown. Goodbye.
Lady Whistledown: And with the retirement of my literary persona, I should like
to formally introduce myself. Previous wallflower, current columnist, observer, wielder of a quill. Nobody unique, and yet, I have my moments.
Penelope Featherington: And hopefully, dear reader, you will stay on to enjoy them with me as we begin this next part of our journey. Yours Truly, Penelope Bridgerton.