Fainting Quotes

“How southern belle of her.”
― Kelly Moran, Puppy Love

“Surprisingly, fainting sounded like a really good idea. If I fainted, I'd be unconscious, so I wouldn't have to see the impossible anymore, nor would I have to feel so dizzy and sick. Than maybe when I woke up, all of this would go away and I'd find it was all just a bad dream. The mist started to turn dark around the edges.....For the record: fainting sucks.”
― Jenna Black, Glimmerglass

“Is he all right?" Jade asked Sterns.
He Swooned"
I know he swooned," Jade replied.”
― Julie Garwood, Guardian Angel

“Cecy, I do think it is unfair. People in novels are fainting all the time, and I never can, no matter how badly I need to.”
― Patricia C. Wrede, Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot

“Perhaps you should put your head down.” I knew this was the thing to do, although I’ve never fainted and I don’t intend to.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“He was like one who had half fainted, and could neither recover nor complete the swoon.”
― Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge

“His breath fell in a warm, even rhythm on the curve of her cheek. “Some people think of the bee as a sacred insect,” he said. “It’s a symbol of reincarnation.”
“I don’t believe in reincarnation,” she muttered.
There was a smile in his voice. “What a surprise. At the very least, the bees’ presence in your home is a sign of good things to come.”
Her voice was buried in the fine wool of his coat. “Wh-what does it mean if there are thousands of bees in one’s home?”
He shifted her higher in his arms, his lips curving gently against the cold rim of her ear. “Probably that we’ll have plenty of honey for teatime. We’re going through the doorway now. In a moment I’m going to set you on your feet.”
Amelia kept her face against him, her fingertips digging into the layers of his clothes. “Are they following?”
“No. They want to stay near the hive. Their main concern is to protect the queen from predators.”
“She has nothing to fear from me!”
Laughter rustled in his throat. With extreme care, he lowered Amelia’s feet to the floor. Keeping one arm around her, he reached with the other to close the door. “There. We’re out of the room. You’re safe.” His hand passed over her hair. “You can open your eyes now.”
Clutching the lapels of his coat, Amelia stood and waited for a feeling of relief that didn’t come. Her heart was racing too hard, too fast. Her chest ached from the strain of her breathing. Her lashes lifted, but all she could see was a shower of sparks.
“Amelia … easy. You’re all right.” His hands chased the shivers that ran up and down her back. “Slow down, sweetheart.”
She couldn’t. Her lungs were about to burst. No matter how hard she worked, she couldn’t get enough air. Bees … the sound of buzzing was still in her ears. She heard his voice as if from a great distance, and she felt his arms go around her again as she sank into layers of gray softness.
After what could have been a minute or an hour, pleasant sensations filtered through the haze. A tender pressure moved over her forehead. The gentle brushes touched her eyelids, slid to her cheeks. Strong arms held her against a comfortingly hard surface, while a clean, salt-edged scent filled her nostrils. Her lashes fluttered, and she turned into the warmth with confused pleasure.
“There you are,” came a low murmur.
Opening her eyes, Amelia saw Cam Rohan’s face above her. They were on the hallway floor—he was holding her in his lap. As if the situation weren’t mortifying enough, the front of her bodice was gaping, and her corset was unhooked. Only her crumpled chemise was left to cover her chest.
Amelia stiffened. Until that moment she had never known there was a feeling beyond embarrassment, that made one wish one could crumble into a pile of ashes. “My … my dress…”
“You weren’t breathing well. I thought it best to loosen your corset.”
“I’ve never fainted before,” she said groggily, struggling to sit up.
“You were frightened.” His hand came to the center of her chest, gently pressing her back down. “Rest another minute.” His gaze moved over her wan features. “I think we can conclude you’re not fond of bees.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Mine Till Midnight

“She was nearly fainting: indeed, she wished she could really faint, but faints don't come for the asking.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair

“The floor scooped me up where I stood, and I blinked as it hit me”
― M. Beth Bloom, Drain You

“Mr. Lecky never got any farther than the third floor. Not conscious of impossible fatigue, feeling less than his distress of the morning, he was notwithstanding seized by a faintness. This sudden spinning dizzied him. A darkness as impalpable, more discrete, yet blacker than night's, spun out from dancing points to overlapping disks. They were so wide, so close to his eyes, that he could not strike them off. He had only a second given him to see and apprehend. This same second loosened his grip on consciousness. He seemed to let go, hardly struggling. His muscles let go everywhere, too. He had time to hear, like some remote accident, the bang of the shotgun, gone, the smash of glass in at least one flashlight lens. This was the thin segment of the actual second, and Mr. Lecky knew nothing of himself slumping to lie on the stairs with the things he had dropped.”
― James Gould Cozzens, Castaway

“Jacky, who had read and admired Mary Wollstonecraft, and despised the fashion of fluttery helplessness in women, felt, to her own annoyance, close to fainting.”
― Tim Powers, The Anubis Gates

“So long have I been subject to Love's sway
And grown accustomed to his mastery That where at first his rule seemed harsh to me
Sweet is his presence in my heart today.
Thus when all fortitude he takes away,
So that my frail spirits seem to flee,
Then I am lost in sweetness utterly
And pallid looks my fainting soul display.
Love marshals then against me all his might;Routed, my spirits wander, murmuring,
And to my lady bring
Petition for new solace in my plight.
Thus by her merest glance I am unmanned,
And pride so humbled, none could understand. ”
― Dante Alighieri, La Vita Nuova

“There was a very slight lilt to it, too, attesting to a childhood spent far from Lincolnshire, and Grace felt herself sway, as if she could fall forward, lightly, softly, and land somewhere else. Far, far from here.”
― Julia Quinn, The Lost Duke of Wyndham

“With my heightened sensitivity to smell, there were too many aromas to take in at one time. Pine. Apple. Cedar. Smoke from the fireplaces. An onslaught of sensorial experiences. All the odors blended together into one and, although wonderful and fresh, it was dizzying and my nose twitched from overload. My eyes focused on the orchard, the trees still laden with apples. Je vais tomber dans les pommes, I thought, thinking of the French expression "I'm going to fall in the apples," which meant to faint.”
― Samantha Verant, The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux

“I already know who I am. A goat.

Nice for you

You're me, idiot. You forgot the important stuff. Like jumping. Chasing.

Fainting.

We don't faint, his goat corrected with annoyance. We swoon dramatically.

Oh, is that what it's called when your legs go stiff, your eyes roll back, and you fall over?

Humph.”
― Morgan Brice, Gruff