Jane Austen, the Secret Radical Quotes

“What on earth can you be sure of, when you can't be sure of the ground beneath your feet?”
― Helena Kelly, Jane Austen, the Secret Radical

“if the past is filled with uncertainty and violent change, if the land you’re standing on was once under the sea, you can be sure of anything. How can you rely on tradition or order or identity when the whole world is mutable, when dynasties crumble and all your deepest beliefs might be based on fiction?”
― Helena Kelly, Jane Austen, the Secret Radical

“Romance is natural, nostalgia is natural, but so is moving on.”
― Helena Kelly, Jane Austen, the Secret Radical

“And it is--it always will be--unknown. Advice, in the end, is 'good or bad only as the event decides'. There's no way of knowing whether 'cheerful confidence' in futurity' or 'over-anxious caution' is the right course. There is no right course.”
― Helena Kelly, Jane Austen, the Secret Radical

“All the accumulated wisdom of the past--'all histories, all stories, prose and verse'--is partial, biased. It isn't enough.”
― Helena Kelly, Jane Austen, the Secret Radical

“Those who don't bend will break.”
― Helena Kelly, Jane Austen, the Secret Radical

“The Influence of the Female Character upon Society, published in 1801, complains about female fashions.”
― Helena Kelly, Jane Austen, the Secret Radical