Perishable Goods quotes
The lines readers remember from Perishable Goods, by Dornford Yates.
20 quotes · About the book
Standout lines
A celibate sees a scandal in every bow. The memory of the most harmless flirtation is a millstone round Jonah’s neck.
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“
A celibate sees a scandal in every bow. The memory of the most harmless flirtation is a millstone round Jonah’s neck.
”
Memory’s a storeroom, that’s all: the storeroom of things you observe. If you’re observant, so much the richer your store.
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Well, there’s the making of a clue. It’s slight enough in all conscience, but—well, I don’t know where Adèle is, and Austria’s quite a big place.” After a little, he continued thoughtfully. “
Memory’s a storeroom, that’s all: the storeroom of things you observe. If you’re observant, so much the richer your store.
But you must be a good storeman—able to produce the requisite, when the moment comes. Some time ago I observed the way to Salzburg: and now I’m producing it. Bell undoubtedly observed the man who carried that note:
Do please remember that battles have gone wrong, wars have been lost and the history of the world has been changed, because valour has outrun discretion and men have lost touch.
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“There is no ‘but’ here,” said Mansel. “You’ve played and you’ve won your game: but, if you’d gone on, you’d have thrown the rubber away.
Do please remember that battles have gone wrong, wars have been lost and the history of the world has been changed, because valour has outrun discretion and men have lost touch.
”
What’s the good of buying a broken heart?
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“No,” he said. “No.
What’s the good of buying a broken heart?
We’ve got to beat Rose Noble: there’s no other way. But it’s a dreadful business to have to go so slow.”
I have never seen two beings so plainly glad of each other, so easy and natural in their love.
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Adèle and Mansel were happy as the day was long.
I have never seen two beings so plainly glad of each other, so easy and natural in their love.
There was nothing common or unclean in all their tenderness, and, so far from embarrassing my senses, my acquaintance with such devotion lifted up my heart.
When six men set out in a body to play with fire, it hardly becomes them to tremble lest someone be burned.
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Such concern will seem out of reason.
When six men set out in a body to play with fire, it hardly becomes them to tremble lest someone be burned.
But our outlook was not so simple. We feared no more for Carson than Carson feared for himself: but we all of us feared very much for the matter in hand. Our school was not that of Rose Noble.
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I: First Blood
A celibate sees a scandal in every bow. The memory of the most harmless flirtation is a millstone round Jonah’s neck.
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“
A celibate sees a scandal in every bow. The memory of the most harmless flirtation is a millstone round Jonah’s neck.
”
II: We Take the Field
Memory’s a storeroom, that’s all: the storeroom of things you observe. If you’re observant, so much the richer your store.
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Well, there’s the making of a clue. It’s slight enough in all conscience, but—well, I don’t know where Adèle is, and Austria’s quite a big place.” After a little, he continued thoughtfully. “
Memory’s a storeroom, that’s all: the storeroom of things you observe. If you’re observant, so much the richer your store.
But you must be a good storeman—able to produce the requisite, when the moment comes. Some time ago I observed the way to Salzburg: and now I’m producing it. Bell undoubtedly observed the man who carried that note:
“Learn of me,” said Mansel. “Never burn anything.”
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As we walked after him—
“Learn of me,” said Mansel. “Never burn anything.”
When we came to the house, he called a footman to serve us with food and drink and himself went up to the chamber where Captain Pleydell lay.
III: In Touch
I know how to hurry, but I look to you for the brains.
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He threw the figs in, but don’t touch them—they’re the only munitions I’ve got. And not everyone stands by that fountain: I had to throw three at Bell. And now what’s to be done?
I know how to hurry, but I look to you for the brains.
”
IV: The Castle of Gath
Do please remember that battles have gone wrong, wars have been lost and the history of the world has been changed, because valour has outrun discretion and men have lost touch.
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“There is no ‘but’ here,” said Mansel. “You’ve played and you’ve won your game: but, if you’d gone on, you’d have thrown the rubber away.
Do please remember that battles have gone wrong, wars have been lost and the history of the world has been changed, because valour has outrun discretion and men have lost touch.
”
VI: The Love of a Lady
What’s the good of buying a broken heart?
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“No,” he said. “No.
What’s the good of buying a broken heart?
We’ve got to beat Rose Noble: there’s no other way. But it’s a dreadful business to have to go so slow.”
Nature and Fortune have driven us into this Eden, and I don’t think we should be human if we didn’t help each other to pick the flowers.
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“You can’t take away memory,” she said. “That we shall have forever, like a star that’s always in the sky. I’m not seeking to justify myself. I know I’m another man’s wife. But I don’t care, William.
Nature and Fortune have driven us into this Eden, and I don’t think we should be human if we didn’t help each other to pick the flowers.
”
I have never seen two beings so plainly glad of each other, so easy and natural in their love.
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Adèle and Mansel were happy as the day was long.
I have never seen two beings so plainly glad of each other, so easy and natural in their love.
There was nothing common or unclean in all their tenderness, and, so far from embarrassing my senses, my acquaintance with such devotion lifted up my heart.
VII: We Practise to Deceive
Mansel was standing, waiting, cool as a man in a garden, regarding his flowers.
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I slid and fell back to the ground, to run to the gate.
Mansel was standing, waiting, cool as a man in a garden, regarding his flowers.
“Carson must stay out,” he said. “I daren’t have everyone in. He and Tester must feed us and keep the cars. Send him for food and drink, as soon as he’s down. And two fifty-foot lengths of rope. The others come in.”
When six men set out in a body to play with fire, it hardly becomes them to tremble lest someone be burned.
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Such concern will seem out of reason.
When six men set out in a body to play with fire, it hardly becomes them to tremble lest someone be burned.
But our outlook was not so simple. We feared no more for Carson than Carson feared for himself: but we all of us feared very much for the matter in hand. Our school was not that of Rose Noble.
Only a brilliant perception can rip the skin off an assumption and bare a fact.
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That we never had any doubt where Rose Noble and his prisoner were gone, I attribute to Mansel alone.
Only a brilliant perception can rip the skin off an assumption and bare a fact.
Everything certainly argued withdrawal to the southeast tower: but that was not nearly enough. We had to know. And Mansel knew.
I don’t mind dirty weather, but I like to know where I am.
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“I don’t care,” Casemate was saying, “I don’t like the ⸻ job.
I don’t mind dirty weather, but I like to know where I am.
”
I remember it perfectly: but I cannot say “This I imagined, and that I saw,” for the line between fact and fancy is a line that I cannot trace.
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I cannot swear to what happened in the next two minutes of time. That is the plain truth. Time and again I have called up the burden of those moments, started to set it down and then laid aside my pen.
I remember it perfectly: but I cannot say “This I imagined, and that I saw,” for the line between fact and fancy is a line that I cannot trace.
Indeed I shall always believe that Mansel had influenced my will, for I did what I did dazedly and was conscious all the time of the smile upon Mansel’s face and the light in his eyes.
VIII: Out of Sight, Out of Mind
The place did not seem like a roof, but like a gigantic terrace, hung in the air.
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This was empty, and, now that I could see all around, seemed like the pleasance of some god-philosopher, whence he could watch and contemplate the world.
The place did not seem like a roof, but like a gigantic terrace, hung in the air.
Even the chimney-stacks could not disturb this illusion, for they had no chimney-pots and might have been great pedestals ready for statuary which had not yet been done.
No Pharaoh could have been more imperious, no beast so vigilant, nothing but a statue could have stood so still and cold.
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himself he did nothing and seemed to be oblivious of what was done, yet, when Bunch was about to gag me, he had knocked me down before I knew myself that my hand had instinctively moved towards my knife.
No Pharaoh could have been more imperious, no beast so vigilant, nothing but a statue could have stood so still and cold.
What was far more, the man compelled belief. That I had duped him was forgotten: if he said “Shut that door,” I knew that to leave it open would have been a fatal mistake:
When you see the sun on the leaves and you hear the birds piping around, I guess you’ll remember today, and, when you remember, I reckon you’ll wish it was raining and that the boughs were bare.
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“I guess you’ll remember today. It’ll spoil the greenwood for you for the rest of your life.
When you see the sun on the leaves and you hear the birds piping around, I guess you’ll remember today, and, when you remember, I reckon you’ll wish it was raining and that the boughs were bare.
“May be it’ll learn you something that they don’t teach at Oxford or the schools for pretty, young boys. Stick to your ⸻ last. Live an’ let live. If somebody pulls your nose, go to the police.
IX: Full Measure
The spring’s in your heart, my darling. The trees will break at your coming, and the wood will become your bower.
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“
The spring’s in your heart, my darling. The trees will break at your coming, and the wood will become your bower.
”
Look Fate in the eyes, my darling, and he’ll always give you the wall.
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It wasn’t I that set the stars in your eyes or gave that fine, proud curve to your beautiful mouth. Adèle was a great lady, before ever she heard my name. So lift up your head, in the old familiar way.
Look Fate in the eyes, my darling, and he’ll always give you the wall.
”
You mustn’t bow down to an image that you set up.
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“A fiction, my beauty, a fiction.
You mustn’t bow down to an image that you set up.
It wasn’t I that set the stars in your eyes or gave that fine, proud curve to your beautiful mouth. Adèle was a great lady, before ever she heard my name. So lift up your head, in the old familiar way.
Call in a doctor, and you always open the sluice.
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“All the way I kept wondering how I could smother the rumours my action was going to start.
Call in a doctor, and you always open the sluice.
When I thought of the flood behind, my foot went out to the brake. It amounted to this—I was putting all our shirts on the rankest outsider that ever was saddled up.
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