I am no indiscriminate novel reader. The mere trash of the common circulating library I hold in the highest contempt.
There seems almost a general wish of descrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them.
A single woman with a narrow income must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old maid, the proper sport of boys and girls, but a single woman of fortune is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as anybody else.
What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering?
Where a man does his best with only moderate powers, he will have the advantage over negligent superiority.
One likes to hear what is to be going on, to be au fair with the newest modes of being trifling and silly.
My heart is, and always will be, yours.
How much I love every thing that is decided and open!
She will never submit to any thing requiring industry and patience, and a subjection of the fancy to the understanding.
Here and there, human nature may be great in times of trial, but generally speaking it is its weakness and not its strength that appears in a sick chamber.
The truth is, that in London it is always a sickly season. Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.
General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be.
Self-knowledge is the first step to maturity.
Here I have opportunity enough for the exercise of my talent, as the chief of my time is spent in conversation.
How can I dispose of myself with it?
I have read your book, and I disapprove.
Portable property is happiness in a pocketbook.
The post office has a great charm at one point of our lives. When you have lived to my age, you will begin to think letters are never worth going through the rain for.
To take a dislike to a young man, only because he appeared to be of a different disposition from himself, was unworthy the real liberality of mind.
You ought certainly to forgive them as a Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing.