“The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!.“
“If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy..“
“Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience- or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope.“
“I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.“
“It is not everyone,’ said Elinor, ‘who has your passion for dead leaves..“
“It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;—it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others..“
“I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness. […] Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy..“
“I come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be…yours..“
“I will be calm. I will be mistress of myself..“
“Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition..“
“She was stronger alone….“
“To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect.“
“Know your own happiness..“
“If a book is well written, I always find it too short..“
“Always resignation and acceptance. Always prudence and honour and duty. Elinor, where is your heart?.“
“There is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions..“
“What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering. For weeks, Marianne, I’ve had this pressing on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature. It was forced on me by the very person whose prior claims ruined all my hope. I have endured her exultations again and again whilst knowing myself to be divided from Edward forever. Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you..“
“And books! Thomson, Cowper, Scott – she would buy them all over and over again; she would buy up every copy, I believe, to prevent their falling into unworthy hands; and she would have every book that tells her how to admire an old twisted tree..“
“Mrs. Palmer, in her way, was equally angry. She was determined to drop his acquaintance immediately, and she was very thankful that she had never been acquainted with him at all. She wished with all her heart Combe Magna was not so near Cleveland; but it did not signify, for it was a great deal too far off to visit; she hated him so much that she was resolved never to mention his name again, and she should tell everybody she saw, how good-for-nothing he was..“
“To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect..“
“It is not every one,” said Elinor, “who has your passion for dead leaves..“
“sometimes I have kept my feelings to myself, because I could find no language to describe them in but what was worn and hackneyed out of all sense and meaning.“
“The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!.“
“The promise, therefore, was given, and must be performed..“
“I detest jargon of every kind, and sometimes I have kept my feelings to myself, because I could find no language to describe them in but what was worn and hackneyed out of all sense and meaning. ~ Marianne Dashwood.“
“Me!” returned Elinor in some confusion; “indeed, Marianne, I have nothing to tell.”
“Nor I,” answered Marianne with energy, “our situations then are alike. We have neither of us anything to tell; you, because you do not communicate, and I, because I conceal nothing..“
“I have not known him long indeed, but I am much better acquainted with him than I am with any other creature in the world..“
“for when people are determined on a mode of conduct which they know to be wrong, they feel injured by the expectation of any thing better from them..“
“But while the imaginations of other people will carry them away to form wrong judgements of our conduct, and to decide on it by slight appearances, one’s happiness must in some measure be always at the mercy of chance..“
“Mr. Palmer does not hear me,” said she, laughing, “he never does sometimes. It is so ridiculous!.“
“I do not believe,” said Mrs. Dashwood, with a good humoured smile, “that Mr. Willoughby will be incommoded by the attempts of either of MY daughters towards what you call CATCHING him. It is not an employment to which they have been brought up. Men are very safe with us, let them be ever so rich..“
“When he was present she had no eyes for any one else. Every thing he did, was right. Every thing he said, was clever. If their evenings at the park were concluded with cards, he cheated himself and all the rest of the party to get her a good hand. If dancing formed the amusement of the night, they were partners for half the time; and when obliged to separate for a couple of dances, were careful to stand together and scarcely spoke a word to any body else. Such conduct made them of course most exceedingly laughed at; but ridicule could not shame, and seemed hardly to provoke them..“
“My business was to declare myself a scoundrel, and whether I did it with a bow or a bluster was of little importance..“
“Marianne’s abilities were, in many respects, quite equal to Elinor’s. She was sensible and clever; but eager in everything: her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation. She was generous, amiable, interesting: she was everything but prudent. The resemblance between her and her mother was strikingly great..“
“We must allow difference of taste..“
“I should hardly call her a lively girl—she is very earnest, very eager in all she does—sometimes talks a great deal and always with animation—but she is not often really merry..“
“Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy..“
“She had an excellent heart — her disposition was affectionate, and her feelings were strong; but she knew how to govern them: it was a knowledge which her mother had yet to learn; and which one of her sisters had resolved never to be taught..“
“…he eyed him with a curiosity which seemed to say, that he only wanted to know him to be rich, to be equally civil to him..“
“Marianne, who had the knack of finding her way in every house to the library, however it might be avoided by the family in general, soon procured herself a book..“