Half the sum of attraction, on either side, might have been enough, for he had nothing to do, and she had hardly any body to love." (of Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth, Persuasion)

There is not the hundredth part of the wine consumed in this kingdom that there ought to be. Our foggy climate wants help.

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.

When the evening was over, Anne could not be amused…nor could she help fearing, on more serious reflection, that, like many other great moralists and preachers, she had been eloquent on a point in which her own conduct would ill bear examination.

[W]here other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.

I can safely say, that the happiest part of my life has been spent on board a ship.

The publicis rather apt to be unreasonably discontented when a woman does marry again, than when she does not.