You think me foolish to call instruction a torment, but if you had been as much used as myself to hear poor little children first learning their letters and then learning to spell, if you had ever seen how stupid they can be for a whole morning together, and how tired my poor mother is at the end of it, as I am in the habit of seeing almost every day of my life at home, you would allow that to torment and to instruct might sometimes be used as synonymous words.

if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him. If she can hesitate as to `Yes,' she ought to say `No' directly. It is not a state to be safely entered into with doubtful feelings, with half a heart.

It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage.

My Emma, does not every thing serve to prove more and more the beauty of truth and sincerity in all our dealings with each other?

Grant us peace, Almighty Father, so to pray as to deserve to be heard.

it is a shocking trick for a young person to be always lolling upon a sofa.

Marianne was silent; it was impossible for her to say what she did not feel, however trivial the occasion.