Mrs. Jennings was a widow, with an ample jointure. She had only two daughters, both of whom she had lived to see respectably married, and she had now therefore nothing to do but to marry all the rest of the world.

I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.

He was not an ill-disposed young man, unless to be rather cold hearted, and rather selfish, is to be ill-disposed.

There are certainly not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.

For what do we live, but to make sport by subjecting our neighbors to endless discretionary review for minor additions?

I read it [history] a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all — it is very tiresome: and yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention.

Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion.