As soon as one promises not to do something, it becomes the one thing above all others that one most wishes to do.

Remind me one day to teach you how to achieve a sneer, Hugh. Yours is too pronounced, and thus but a grimace. It should be but a faint curl of the lips.

[...]if you talk any more flummery to me, Frederica, I shall give you one of my—er—icy set-downs!”(Alverstoke)

When fate is got it in for you, there is no limit to what you may have to put up with.

No one could have called Mr. Standen quick-witted, but the possession of three sisters had considerably sharpened his instinct of self-preservation.

What is your name?" "Again sir, that is no concern of yours." "A mystery," he said. "I shall have to call you Clorinda." ..... "Judith! What the devil? exclaimed Peregrine. "Has there been an accident?" "Judith," repeated the gentleman of the curricle pensively. "I prefer Clorinda.

You know what I think? Fate! That's what it is fate! There's a thing that comes after a fellow:got a name,but I forgot what it is. Creeps up behind him, and puts him in the basket when he ain't expecting it.