Northanger Abbey - Jane Ostin

In marriage, the man is supposed to provide for the support of the woman, the woman to make the home agreeable to the man; he is to purvey, and she is to smile.
But in dancing, their duties are exactly changed; the agreeableness, the compliance are expected from him, while she furnishes the fan and the lavender water.

But now you love a hyacinth. So much the better.
You have gained a new source of enjoyment, and it is well to have as many holds upon happiness as possible.

Government neither desires nor dares to interfere in such matters. There must be murder; and government cares not how much.

Though to the larger and more trifling part of the sex, imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, there is a portion of them too reasonable and too well informed themselves to desire anything more in woman than ignorance.

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.