I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.

Men of sense, whatever you may choose to say, do not want silly wives.

There seems almost a general wish of descrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them.

If the heroine of one novel be not patronized by the heroine of another, from whom can she expect protection and regard?

I am no indiscriminate novel reader. The mere trash of the common circulating library I hold in the highest contempt.

The worst crimes; are the crimes of the heart

...I will not allow books to prove any thing." "But how shall we prove any thing?" "We never shall.