Persuasion

by Jane Austen

it is singularity which often makes the worst part of our suffering, as it always does of our conduct.

though a great deal is due to the feelings of the gentleman, and the head of a house, like your father, there is still more due to the character of an honest man.”

though every profession is necessary and honourable in its turn, it is only the lot of those who are not obliged to follow any, who can live in a regular way, in the country, choosing their own hours, following their own pursuits, and living on their own property, without the torment of trying for more; it is only their lot, I say, to hold the blessings of health and a good appearance to the utmost: I know no other set of men but what lose something of their personableness when they cease to be quite young.”

“There is hardly any personal defect,” replied Anne, “which an agreeable manner might not gradually reconcile one to.”

she believed she must now submit to feel that another lesson, in the art of knowing our own nothingness beyond our own circle, was become necessary for her;

If there is anything disagreeable going on men are always sure to get out of it,

Personal size and mental sorrow have certainly no necessary proportions.

“But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures. We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.”

It is the worst evil of too yielding and indecisive a character, that no influence over it can be depended on. You are never sure of a good impression being durable; everybody may sway it. Let those who would be happy be firm.

it was the misfortune of poetry to be seldom safely enjoyed by those who enjoyed it completely; and that the strong feelings which alone could estimate it truly were the very feelings which ought to taste it but sparingly.

nor could she help fearing, on more serious reflection, that, like many other great moralists and preachers, she had been eloquent on a point in which her own conduct would ill bear examination.

They praised the morning; gloried in the sea; sympathized in the delight of the fresh-feeling breeze—and were silent;

One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.

Everybody has their taste in noises as well as in other matters; and sounds are quite innoxious, or most distressing, by their sort rather than their quantity.

The folly of the means they often employ is only to be equalled by the folly of what they have in view.”

“My idea of good company, Mr. Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.”

What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken!

Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.”

We never can expect to prove any thing upon such a point. It is a difference of opinion which does not admit of proof.

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.