Colin Bridgerton Quotes

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: Please. Do not say things you do not mean.

Colin Bridgerton: But I do mean it. It is everything I have wanted to say to you… for weeks.

Penelope Featherington: But… Colin, we are friends.

Colin Bridgerton: Yes, but we… Forgive me. Um… I do not know what I was thinking.

Penelope Featherington: But I’d very much like to be more than friends. So much more.

Penelope Featherington (about Lord Debling): He did not propose. In fact, he rejected me because of you. Because the scene you caused led him to believe you have feelings for me. An idea so preposterous, I do not know what to do besides laugh. Now, will you please let us ride home in silence and leave me alone.

Colin Bridgerton: I cannot.

Penelope Featherington: Please!

Colin Bridgerton: I cannot. Because… What if I did have feelings for you?

Colin Bridgerton: I had to see how you were.

Penelope Featherington: You read Whistledown.

Colin Bridgerton: She is beastly to write such things.

Penelope Featherington: It’s her job to report what everyone is talking about. It would have been suspicious if she had not. In truth, I brought this on myself. A sad, stupid girl who believed she might possibly have a chance of love.

Colin Bridgerton: You must not say such things.

Colin Bridgerton: Forget what is wrong or right. Imagine what you would want to say to me if I were a suitor without concerning yourself with how I might receive it.

Penelope Featherington: Your eyes… are the most remarkable shade of blue. Yet, somehow, they shine even brighter when you are kind. I might say something like that if you were a suitor.

Colin Bridgerton: Mm. Well, that was, uh, rather direct.

Colin Bridgerton: Do you know what I discovered when I was abroad? No one knew me. No one knew who I was supposed to be. I was entirely freed of being the Colin Bridgerton the ton knows me to be. Which is how I became myself. Pen, living for the estimation of others is a trap. Once you break free, the world opens up.

Penelope Featherington: You make it sound so easy.

(Colin is explaining how charming Pen was when they first met, how natural it was to her back then…)

Colin Bridgerton: I think I know why. Because we were children. Before the self-consciousness of adulthood set in. Before we started caring what others think.

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: Do you remember when we first met? I was riding my horse, minding my own business, when I was assaulted… by a devilishly yellow head covering.

Penelope Featherington: It was not my fault. The wind blew it off my head.

Colin Bridgerton: Wind or not, you certainly seemed pleased when I landed in the mud.

Penelope Featherington: I apologized.

Colin Bridgerton: Yes. And you were so very charming about it. Teasing me. Mercilessly, in fact.

Colin Bridgerton: Are you certain you want my help after what Lady Whistledown wrote?

Penelope Featherington: She has never been more wrong about anyone. Let us pay her no heed.

Colin Bridgerton: Indeed. Sooner or later, she will be caught, and we shall dance on the day of her demise.

Colin Bridgerton: Is something wrong, Pen? Between us, I mean. I wrote to you this summer, as I always do. And… well, you did not respond. Admittedly, very few did. But… If you are going to make me say it out loud, I miss you.

Penelope Featherington: You miss me? You miss me, but you’d never court me. Is that correct?

Colin Bridgerton: Pen, I…

Penelope Featherington: I overheard you… at my mama’s ball last season, telling everyone how you would never ever court Penelope Featherington.

Colin Bridgerton: Perhaps we should talk 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.