Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.

I encourage him to be in his garden as often as possible. Then he has to walk to Rosings nearly every day. ... I admit I encourage him in that also.

She was not often invited to join in the conversation of the others, nor did she desire it. Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.

People that marry can never part, but must go and keep house together. People that dance only stand opposite each other in a long room for half an hour.

There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.

Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate. She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favourite maxims.

I might as well enquire,” replied she, “why with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character?