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

Autumn glows upon us like a splendid evening; it is the very sunset of the year.

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

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

There is no running away from a great grief.

The slightest emotion of disinterested kindness that passes through the mind improves and refreshes that mind, producing generous thought and noble feeling, as the sun and rain foster your favourite flowers. Cherish kind wishes, my children; for a time may come when you may be enabled to put them in practice.

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...