I have discovered that our great favourite, Miss Austen, is my countrywoman...with whom mamma before her marriage was acquainted. Mamma says that she was then the prettiest, silliest, most affected, husband-hunting butterfly she ever remembers...

A novel should be as like life as a painting, but not as like life as a piece of waxwork.

I detest so much ... those persons, who insist upon telling you everything - who labor every point, as the lawyers say, as if they thought all excellence consisted in length.

In our present high state of civilization, people are so much alike, that anything at all odd comes on one with the freshness and character of an antique coin among smooth shillings.

Trees and children are, of all living things, those whose growth soonest makes one feel one's age.

Prejudices of taste, likings and dislikings, are not always vanquishable by reason.

There is no running away from a great grief.