Denise's review
status:
Read in July, 2008
Lines I loved from this book:
Have you never known the pleasure and triumph of a lucky guess? I pity you.
It’s a great deal better to choose than to be chosen, to excite gratitude than to feel it.
What is passable in youth is detestable in later age.
Emma is spoiled by being the cleverest in her family.
I think her the very worst sort of companion that Emma could possibly have. She knows nothing herself and looks upon Emma as knowing everything.
With all dear Emma’s little faults, she is an excellent creature. Where shall we find a better daughter or a kinder sister or a truer friend?
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. If she can hesitate as to ‘Yes,’ than she ought to say ‘No’ directly.
Her character depends upon those she is with, but in good hands she will turn out a valuable woman.
Better to be without sense than to misapply it as you...more
Lines I loved from this book:
Have you never known the pleasure and triumph of a lucky guess? I pity you.
It’s a great deal better to choose than to be chosen, to excite gratitude than to feel it.
What is passable in youth is detestable in later age.
Emma is spoiled by being the cleverest in her family.
I think her the very worst sort of companion that Emma could possibly have. She knows nothing herself and looks upon Emma as knowing everything.
With all dear Emma’s little faults, she is an excellent creature. Where shall we find a better daughter or a kinder sister or a truer friend?
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. If she can hesitate as to ‘Yes,’ than she ought to say ‘No’ directly.
Her character depends upon those she is with, but in good hands she will turn out a valuable woman.
Better to be without sense than to misapply it as you do.
One-half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
Nobody is afraid of her – that is a great charm.
There are people who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.
You had better look about you and ascertain what you do and what you mean to do.
Where the wound had been given, there must the cure be found.
My idea of him is that he can adapt his conversation to the taste of everybody, and has the power as well as the wish of being universally agreeable. To you he will talk of farming; to me, of drawing or music; and so on to everybody, having that general information on all subjects which will enable him to follow the lead or take the lead, just as propriety may require, and to speak extremely well on each; that is my idea of him.
What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.
I do not know whether is ought to be so, but certainly silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an imprudent way. Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly. It depends upon the character of those who handle it.
Men never know when things are dirty or not; and the gentlemen perhaps each thought to himself, ‘Women will have their little nonsenses and needless cares.
He knew her illnesses; they never occurred but for her own convenience.
How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation?
The blessing of a female correspondent when one is really interested in the absent!
There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.
It is not every man’s fate to marry the woman who loves him best.
Whenever you are transplanted, like me, Miss Woodhouse, you will understand how very delightful it is to meet with anything at all like what one has left behind.
A vast deal may be done by those who dare to act.
Of the same age, and always knowing her, I ought to have been more her friend. She will never like me now. I have neglected her for too long. But I will show her greater attention than I have done.
The public pays and must be served well.
I always take the part of my own sex; I do, indeed…. I always stand up for women.
The greatest kindness that you can show me will be to let me have my own way.
If attention in future could do away the past, she might hope to be forgiven.
When one is in great pain, you know one cannot feel any blessing quite as it may deserve.
It was not so much his behavior as her own which made her so angry with him.
It now that she was threatened with its loss, Emma had never known how much of her happiness depended on being first with Mr. Knightly, first in interest and affection.
A man would always wish to give a woman a better home than the one he takes her from.
… differing only in those striking inferiorities which always brought the other in brilliancy before him.
She will give you all the minute particulars, which only woman’s language can make interesting. In our communications we deal only in the great.
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Emma (Penguin Classics) 
