On Love:
The enthusiasm of a woman’s love is even beyond the biographer’s.
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No young lady can be justified in falling in love before the gentleman’s love is declared. It must be very improper that a young lady should dream of a gentleman before the gentleman is first known to have dreamt of her.
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The mere habit of learning to love is the thing; and a teachableness of disposition in a young lady is a great blessing
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I am determined that only the deepest love will induce me into matrimony. So… I shall end an old maid, and teach your ten children to embroider cushions and play their instruments very ill.
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On Life:
It is indolence… Indolence and love of ease a want of all laudable ambition, of taste for good company, or of inclination to take the trouble of being agreeable, which make men clergymen. A clergyman has nothing to do but be slovenly and selfish read the newspaper, watch the weather, and quarrel with his wife. His curate does all the work and the business of his own life is to dine.
The wisest and the best of men, nay, the wisest and best of their actions, may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke.
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Life could do nothing for her, beyond giving time for a better preparation for death.
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On Happiness:
How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue.
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On Knowledge:
. . . provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be gained from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she had never any objection to books at all.