The Murder of Mr. Wickham (Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney #1)

by Claudia Gray

(Elizabeth felt that new acquaintances generally fell into two categories: those who were worth knowing and those who provided constant sources of amusement.)

Interesting men tended to marry interesting women. If not, she had learned, it was a hint that the actual man might not be as interesting as his credentials.

“Not all wickedness reveals itself immediately. Sometimes it masquerades as charm in the beginning. And the masquerade can be more convincing than you would ever dream.”

I have corresponded with an unmarried man, Juliet thought. How unladylike. How unfortunate for public morals that being unladylike feels so…exciting.

If one made allowances for peculiarity, it soon ceased to be peculiar and became ordinary.

When making new friends, pay less attention to what people say of themselves, more attention to how they behave. Truth is not in the telling but in the doing.

“Do not be ashamed of caring for another creature. Would that the world contained more such feeling, rather than less.”

We forgive the faults of those we love so often, so deeply, that we sometimes convince ourselves the faults do not exist. The rest of the world is not so easily persuaded.

“In order to have one’s own pride, one must believe oneself worthy of it,” she replied. “True pride cannot be taken away, not by the contempt of the whole world. We cannot destroy the pride of others, only our own.”

“I believe that the smallest hatred is a greater sin than the most misguided love.”

There is no plan so pleasant, no expectation so cherished, that someone cannot be found to disapprove of it.

For humility lay at the core of it all—the recognition of one’s own self as a sinner, the willingness to surrender ultimate judgment to the ultimate Judge. “Besides, the New Testament makes it clear that Christ’s sacrifice repeals some of the harshest tenets of the Old, does it not?”

BAM! Now if all of modern Western Christianity could see this statement.