She was heartily ashamed of her ignorance - a misplaced shame. Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well−informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

Sometimes the last person on earth you want to be with is the one person you can't be without.

Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.

Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then. It is something to think of, and gives her a sort of distinction among her companions

Not very good, I am afraid. But now really, do not you think Udolpho the nicest book in the world?" "The nicest—by which I suppose you mean the neatest. That must depend upon the binding.

... strange things may be generally accounted for if their cause be fairly seached out.

A woman of seven and twenty, said Marianne, after pausing a moment, can never hope to feel or inspire affection again.