Courtesan Quotes

“So sweet and delicious do I become,
when I am in bed with a man
who, I sense, loves and enjoys me,
that the pleasure I bring excels all delight,
so the knot of love, however tight
it seemed before, is tied tighter still.”
― Veronica Franco, Poems and Selected Letters

“I was performing my ritual of sipping tea, shooting flirtatious glances and planning murder”
― Mingmei Yip, Peach Blossom Pavilion

“Here’s her story, a tale of the bear-keeper’s daughter and the Empire: what happened to her and what happened because of her.”
― Carol Strickland, The Eagle and the Swan

“Finding out that you are not your lover’s only lover hurts, but not as much as discovering that you are the side chick … or the side dick.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Some women would not cheat, and some would not have cheated, had they each married a man whom they love … or at least like.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“I have never deceived anyone, for I have never belonged to anyone. My independence was all my wealth: I have known no other happiness.”
― Cora Pearl

“Let those who love me follow me'Cora Pearl, on being the very first person to dye her hair red in 1864”
― Cora Pearl courtesan of the demi-monde

“A courtesan would receive years of training in literature, etiquette, dance and music before she was

allowed to make her first public appearance. Courtesans have played quite a huge role in enriching

our country’s traditions in music and art, you know. And sexuality – that too was considered an art,

an ancient art…”

What did it mean for the courtesans to have to make themselves available to the colonizer? To lay

their bodies open to sex, to medical inspection, to laws? And all this to keep the military virile and

marching towards the expansion of Empire! What happened to the women afterwards, that’s what I

want to know! In fact, I don’t think it was very different from slavery in America – Black women

eroticized, abused, discarded. No, the real story must have been far, far worse. Before the British,

after the British.”
― Debotri Dhar, The Courtesans of Karim Street

“The most unnecessary lesson however, in my memory as I realize it now, was a Sanskrit lyric, not in praise of God, but defining the perfect woman - it said the perfect woman must work like a slave, advise like a Mantri (Minister), look like Goddess Lakshmi, be patient like Mother Earth and courtesan-like in the bed chamber - this I had to recite on certain days of the week. After the lessons she released me and served food.
(Book: Grandmother's Tale in Antaeus #70: Special Fiction Issue)”
― RK Narayan

“The more I saw her, the more she enchanted me. She was exquisitely beautiful. Her slenderness was a charm. I was lost in contemplation.

What was passing in my mind I should have some difficulty in explaining. I was full of indulgence for her life, full of admiration for her beauty. The proof of disinterestedness that she gave in not accepting a rich and fashionable young man, ready to waste all his money upon her, excused her in my eyes for all her faults in the past.

There was a kind of candour in this woman. You could see she was still in the virginity of vice. Her firm walk, her supple figure, her rosy, open nostrils, her large eyes, slightly tinged with blue, indicated one of those ardent natures which shed around them a sort of voluptuous perfume, like Eastern vials, which, close them as tightly as you will, still let some of their perfume escape. Finally, whether it was simple nature or a breath of fever, there passed from time to time in the eyes of this woman a glimmer of desire, giving promise of a very heaven for one whom she should love. But those who had loved Marguerite were not to be counted, nor those whom she had loved.”
― Alexandre Dumas fils, La dame aux camélias

“This is not where I was meant to be. Born to the wrong house, by a stroke of misfortune. The girls here have it all. Men in whorehouses exist only to serve. We are their guards, tailors, cooks and their musicians. Forever in the shadows. If only I could be a woman. With soft hands, big breasts and long hair. To have men fawn all over me, to see them rise and fall. Alas, but all I have is small feet.”
― Ekta Kumar, Box of Lies: A Love Story, Without Love

“To be a virtuous and even prudish woman in the world's eyes, and a courtesan to her husband, is to be a woman of genius, and there are few.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Cousin Bette

“Could you really be expected to..." she paused, searching for the word.
"Pleasure?" He offered, amiably.
"Entertain. All three of them?"
He began dealing the cards again. "Yes."
"How?"
He looked up at her, and offered her a wolfish grin. "Would you really like me to answer that?"
Her eyes widened. "Uhm... no."
He laughed then, a deep, rumbling laugh unlike anything she'd ever heard from him, and she was stunned by the way it transformed him. His face was immediately lighter, his eyes brighter, his frame more relaxed. She couldn't help but smile back at him, even as she admonished, "You're enjoying my discomfort."
"Indeed I am, Empress."
She blushed. "You shouldn't call me that."
"Why not? You were named for an empress, were you not?"
She closed her eyes and gave a mock shudder. "I prefer not to be reminded of the hideous name."
"You should embrace it," he said, forthrightly. "You're one of the few women I've met who could live up to such a name."
"You've said that before," she said.
He turned a curious look on her. "I have?"
She met his eyes and immediately regretted bringing up the decade-old memory, so insignificant to him- so very meaningful to her.”
― Sarah MacLean, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake

“She wraps him with her flirtatious song - full of hints – then follows it with an ode in which with slow posturing she upbraids him, curses him, implores him, then finally adjures him with desperate wringing of her hands.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“I saw you again on my wedding day, my love, when you performed. They say the floor rocked that night. I don’t believe any of it for it was on the floor that my eyes were focused throughout the evening and I did not see it tremble even once.”
― Mukta Singh-Zocchi, The Thugs & a Courtesan

“Au XVIe siècle, en Italie, entre Rome et les collines dorées de Toscane, un nouveau monde est en train de naître, grâce à de grandes familles de souverains flamboyants. Ils savent s’entourer de vaillants militaires, d’artistes et d’écrivains de renom, mais aussi de femmes extravagantes et talentueuses. Pour leur rendre grâce, on invente un nouveau qualificatif les distinguant des vulgaires prostituées, ce seront des « courtisanes », cortigianae , des femmes ayant des manières les rendant dignes de figurer à la cour.”
― Marc Lemonier, La petite histoire des courtisanes: Elles ont touché le pouvoir. Mais qui sont-elles vraiment ?

“I'm on the menu because I want to be.' My hands balled into fists. 'And I'm not even really on the menu. I'm like a barely chosen... appetiser.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, Fall of Ruin and Wrath

“There is a difference, Emilia, between being kept - like me - and being owned - like a wife. The difference is freedom. I do what I want and I go where I want, as long as I make myself available otherwise.”
― Jodi Picoult, By Any Other Name

“No matter how she comported herself - at all times she seems to have been as deft with her image as her person - she broke every rule in the book. A queen at home, she was courtesan out of her country. And she was something more dangerous still: a courtesan with means. Cleopatra was not merely economically independent, but richer than any man in Rome.”
― Stacy Schiff, Cleopatra: A Life