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...

She was the prettiest, silliest, most affected, husband-hunting butterfly ever.

Enthusiasm is very catching, especially when it is very eloquent.

That bad letters of every kind arise from want of the habit of thinking, I cannot doubt.

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.

... they know little of the passions who seek to argue with that most intractable of them all, the fear that is born of love.

We may admire people for being wise, but we like them best when they are foolish.