The Other Bennet Sister

by Janice Hadlow

There is a difference, you know, between pride and vanity. One is much more to be condemned than the other. The vain man wants others to think well of himself, regardless of his virtues. Pride relates more to our honest opinion of ourselves.”

When not warmed up by feeling, reason is a very chilly, uncomfortable discipline by which to live your life.

it is companionship that forms the basis of a truly happy marriage. Passion, they tell us, is very soon spent, and is anyway a most uncertain foundation for domestic felicity.”

“They say marriage is a lottery and none of us knows if we’ve drawn a winning ticket until it’s too late.”

It’s hard to persuade anyone, especially a man, that your regard is worth having if you have none for yourself.”

How, she mused, are we to understand happiness, and the ways in which it is brought about? Is it determined by inherited temperament? Or is it all a matter of chance, a quality arbitrarily bestowed on some but not on others? Do our circumstances matter? Are beauty and wealth more likely to produce happiness than goodness and self-sacrifice? And is there anything an individual can do to improve their own sense of contentment and satisfaction?

very few people understand the importance of silence as an aid to concentration. It is an essential requirement for anyone wishing to undertake serious study, but seldom found, I am afraid to say, especially amongst the fairer sex. You, however, do not seem much given to idle and unreflecting chatter.”

this is so me! Silence is gold somtimes :D

it is only through self-knowledge that genuine happiness is to be had. Only when we know ourselves—when we have examined and understood our strengths and weaknesses, when we have been honest enough to admit what we really desire from life—only then do we have any chance at all of attaining it.”

She was also very disagreeable, but Mary had often observed men did not seem to feel this to be as grave a disability as might have been expected, provided it was accompanied by a pretty face and a decent dowry.

We would all be happier if we were more honest with each other

do what you will and follow your heart, for we are all a very long time dead.”

“No, you are not a child,” replied Mrs. Gardiner gravely. “But you are a woman, which, as you grow older, you are likely to discover puts you only slightly above the condition of an infant in the eyes of most of the world.”

There are times when happiness must be fought for, if we are to have any chance at all of achieving it.”