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By the bye, as I must leave off being young, I find many douceurs in being a sort of chaperon, for I am put on the sofa near the fire and can drink as much wine as I like.
Jane Austen
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I am not fond of the idea of my shrubberies being always approachable.
Jane Austen
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There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere.
Jane Austen
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One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best.
Jane Austen
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Where the wound had been given, there must the cure be found, if any where.
Jane Austen
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Catherine had never wanted comfort more, and he [Henry] looked as if he was aware of it.
Jane Austen
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I do not find it easy to talk to people I don't know.
Jane Austen
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Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter.
Jane Austen
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Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.
Jane Austen
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I lay it down as a general rule, Harriet, that if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him.
Jane Austen
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Our little visitor has just left us, and left us highly pleased with her; she is a nice, natural, open-hearted, affectionate girl, with all the ready civility which one sees in the best children in the present day; so unlike anything that I was myself at her age, that I am often all astonishment and shame.
Jane Austen
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It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire.
Jane Austen
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Thus much indeed he was obliged to acknowledge - that he had been constant unconsciously, nay unintentionally; that he had meant to forget her, and believed it to be done. He had imagined himself indifferent, when he had only been angry; and he had been unjust to her merits, because he had been a sufferer from them.
Jane Austen
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There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution. - Mr. Knightley
Jane Austen
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A lady, without a family, was the very best preserver of furniture in the world.
Jane Austen
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Sophia shrieked and fainted on the ground-I screamed and instantly ran mad! We remained thus mutually deprived of our senses some minutes, and on regaining them were deprived of them again. For an hour and a quarter did we continue in this unfortunate situation.
Jane Austen
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The distance is nothing when one has a motive.
Jane Austen
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A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill.
Jane Austen
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There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.
Jane Austen
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Next week I shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend.
Jane Austen
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The General has got the gout, and Mrs. Maitland the jaundice. Miss Debary, Susan, and Sally, all in black, but without any stature, made their appearance, and I was as civil to them as their bad breath would allow me.
Jane Austen
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Here I am once more in this scene of dissipation and vice, and I begin already to find my morals corrupted.
Jane Austen
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In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.
Jane Austen
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Mr. Digweed has used us basely. Handsome is as handsome does; he is therefore a very ill-looking man.
Jane Austen
