"Undoubtedly ... there is a meanness in..." - Quote by Jane Austen

“There is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions.”

“Personal size and mental sorrow have certainly no necessary proportions. A large bulky figure has a good a right to be in deep affliction, as the most graceful set of limbs in the world. But, fair or not fair, there are unbecoming conjunctions, which reason will pa tronize in vain,--which taste cannot tolerate,--which ridicule will seize.”

“[W]here other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.”

“Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves”

“The daily employment of cunning marks a little mind, it generally happens that those who resort to it in one respect to protect themselves lay themselves open to attack in another.”

“The most effectual way to be deceived is to believe oneself more cunning than one's neighbors.”

“irony is a way of having one's cake while appearing to eat it.”

“Live loath'd and long,Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,You fools of fortune, trencher friends, time fliesCap and knee slaves, vapors, and minute jacks.”

“We must put up with our clothes as they are - they have their reason for existing. They are on us to expose us - to advertise what we wear them to conceal. They are a sign; a sign of insincerity; a sign of suppressed vanity; a pretense that we desire gorgeous colors and the graces of harmony and form; and we put them on to propagate that lie and back it up.”