The Very first moment I beheld him, my heart was irrevocably gone.

I come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be yours.

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.

Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.

Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of other people's mouths.

I use the verb 'to torment,' as I observed to be your own method, instead of 'to instruct,' supposing them to be now admitted as synonymous.

I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness ... Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy.