She knew that what Marianne and her mother conjectured one moment, they believed the next: that with them, to wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect.
Jane AustenSuch a letter was not to be soon recovered from. . . . Every moment rather brought fresh agitation. It was an overpowering happiness.
Jane AustenBut Catherine did not know her own advantages - did not know that a good-looking girl, with an affectionate heart and a very ignorant mind, cannot fail of attracting a clever young man, unless circumstances are particularly untoward.
Jane AustenThere is a quickness of perception in some, a nicety in the discernment of character, a natural penetration, in short, which no experience in others can equal.
Jane AustenHer companion's discourse now sunk from its hitherto animated pitch, to nothing more than a short, decisive sentence of praise or condemnation on the face of every woman they met; and Catherine, after listening and agreeing as long as she could,with all the civility and deference of the youthful female mind, fearful of hazarding an opinion of its own in opposition to that of a self-assured man, especially where the beauty of her own sex is concerned, ventured at length to vary the subject.
Jane Austen