Mansfield park - Jane Ostin

Let us have the luxury of silence.

It is more difficult to speak well than to compose well.

A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.

Be honest and poor, by all means — but I shall not envy you; I do not much think I shall even respect you. I have a much greater respect for those that are honest and rich.

But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.

... and acknowledge the advantages of early hardship and discipline, and the consciousness of being born to struggle and endure.

An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself.
Her cares are over, and she feels that she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion.