"I declare after all there is no enjoyment
like reading! How much sooner one tires
of any thing than of a book! — When I
have a house of my own, I shall be
miserable if I have not an excellent library."
14th July 11
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
(Source: theaustengirl)
"You expect me to account for opinions which you choose to call mine, but which I have never acknowledged."
27th February 11
Jane Austen (chp. 10)
"They gradually ascended for half a mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of a valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. It was a large, handsome, stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills;—and in front, a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance. Its banks were neither formal, nor falsely adorned. Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place where nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. They were all of them warm in her admiration; and at that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!"
14th February 11
Pride and Prejudice
(Jane Austen)
"Elizabeth was much too embarrassed to say a word. After a short pause, her companion added, “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.” Elizabeth feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand, that her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure, his present assurances."
14th February 11
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
"My fingers … do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women’s do. They have not the same force or rapidity, and do not produce the same expression. But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault- because I would not take the trouble of practising."
26th July 10
Chapter 31, Jane Austen
"Neither duty, nor honour, nor gratitude … have any possible claim on me."
11th July 10
Chapter 56, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
"It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first."
16th June 10
Jane Austen
"Nothing is more deceitful … than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast."
5th June 10
Jane Austen
"To yield readily—easily—to the persuasion of a friend is no merit…. To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either."
3rd June 10
Jane Austen
"Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society."
31st May 10
Jane Austen
"Elizabeth, having rather expected to affront him, was amazed at his gallantry; but there was a mixture of sweetness and archness in her manner which made it difficult for her to affront anybody; and Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her. He really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he should be in some danger."
29th May 10
Jane Austen
"Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion."
28th May 10
Jane Austen
"If I endeavor to undeceive people as to the rest of his conduct, who will believe me? The general prejudice against Mr. Darcy is so violent that it would be the death of half the good people in Meryton, to attempt to place him in an amiable light."
26th May 10
Jane Austen
