Persuasion

by Jane Austen

she had a value for rank and consequence, which blinded her a little to the faults of those who possessed them.

She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.

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

and to say, that she thought 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.

Anne wondered whether it ever occurred to him now, to question the justness of his own previous opinion as to the universal felicity and advantage of firmness of character; and whether it might not strike him that, like all other qualities of the mind, it should have its proportions and limits. She thought it could scarcely escape him to feel that a persuadable temper might sometimes be as much in favour of happiness as a very resolute character.

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

She felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped.

A man does not recover from such a devotion of the heart to such a woman. He ought not; he does not.”

“I will not oppose such kind politeness; but I should be sorry to be examined by a real proficient.”

It is a difference of opinion which does not admit of proof.

You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others.