No- I cannot talk of books in a ballroom; my head is always full of something else.

It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.

I was quiet but I was not blind.

Do not give way to useless alarm; though it is right to be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look on it as certain.

When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene.

In a letter from Bath to her sister, Cassandra, one senses her frustration at her sheltered existence, Tuesday, 12 May 1801. Another stupid party . . . with six people to look on, and talk nonsense to each other.

To take a dislike to a young man, only because he appeared to be of a different disposition from himself, was unworthy the real liberality of mind