I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be. All novels are or should be, written for both men and women to read, and I am at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.

Keep both heart and hand in your own possession, till you see good reason to part with them.

He never could have loved me, or he would not have resigned me so willingly

If the generous ideas of youth are too often over- clouded by the sordid views of after-life, that scarcely proves them to be false

God will judge us by our own thoughts and deeds, not by what others say about us.

But smiles and tears are so alike with me, they are neither of them confined to any particular feelings: I often cry when I am happy, and smile when I am sad.

I had been seasoned by adversity, and tutored by experience, and I longed to redeem my lost honour in the eyes of those whose opinion was more than that of all the world to me.