Emma

by Jane Austen

“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,’ she ought to say ‘No’ directly. It is not a state to be safely entered into with doubtful feelings, with half a heart.

You must be the best judge of your own happiness.

“Upon my word, Emma, to hear you abusing the reason you have, is almost enough to make me think so too. Better be without sense, than misapply it as you do.”

Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.

“That is the case with us all, papa. One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.”

There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.

To youth and natural cheerfulness like Emma’s, though under temporary gloom at night, the return of day will hardly fail to bring return of spirits. The youth and cheerfulness of morning are in happy analogy, and of powerful operation; and if the distress be not poignant enough to keep the eyes unclosed, they will be sure to open to sensations of softened pain and brighter hope. Emma got up on the morrow more disposed for comfort than she had gone to bed, more ready to see alleviations of the evil before her, and to depend on getting tolerably out of it.

“It is very unfair to judge of any body’s conduct, without an intimate knowledge of their situation. Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual of that family may be.

“There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chuses, and that is, his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution.

Respect for right conduct is felt by every body.

What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.

As Mrs. Weston observed, “all young people would have their little whims.”

“I do not know whether it ought to be so, but certainly silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way. Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.—It depends upon the character of those who handle it.

Surprizes are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.

A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.

“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart,”

it is much more advisable to mix in the world in a proper degree, without living in it either too much or too little.

“they are paid for it. That is the key to a great deal of capacity. The public pays and must be served well.”

John Knightley only was in mute astonishment.—That a man who might have spent his evening quietly at home after a day of business in London, should set off again, and walk half a mile to another man’s house, for the sake of being in mixed company till bed-time, of finishing his day in the efforts of civility and the noise of numbers, was a circumstance to strike him deeply.

She believed it would be wiser for her to say and know at once, all that she meant to say and know. Plain dealing was always best.

Go and eat and drink a little more, and you will do very well.

When one is in great pain, you know one cannot feel any blessing quite as it may deserve.

Have you any thing to send or say, besides the ‘love,’ which nobody carries?”

So unlike what a man should be!—None of that upright integrity, that strict adherence to truth and principle, that disdain of trick and littleness, which a man should display in every transaction of his life.”

To understand, thoroughly understand her own heart, was the first endeavour.

and the only source whence any thing like consolation or composure could be drawn, was in the resolution of her own better conduct, and the hope that, however inferior in spirit and gaiety might be the following and every future winter of her life to the past, it would yet find her more rational, more acquainted with herself, and leave her less to regret when it were gone.

Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken; but where, as in this case, though the conduct is mistaken, the feelings are not, it may not be very material.—Mr.

It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.

“For when a lady’s in the case, “You know all other things give place.”

“Oh! I always deserve the best treatment, because I never put up with any other;