If people like to read their books, it is all very well, but to be at so much trouble in filling great volumes, which, as I used to think, nobody would willingly ever look into, to be labouring only for the torment of little boys and girls, always struck me as a hard fate.

I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.

I can never be important to any one.' 'What is to prevent you?' 'Every thing — my situation — my foolishness and awkwardness.

You may only call me "Mrs. Darcy"... when you are completely, and perfectly, and incandescently happy.

One likes to hear what is to be going on, to be au fair with the newest modes of being trifling and silly.

But are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid? [Referring to Gothic novels, fashionable in England at the beginning of the 19th century, but frowned upon in polite society.]

Too many cooks spoil the broth