"Expect a most agreeable letter; for not..." - Quote by Jane Austen

“To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain for the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive.”

“Her eye fell everywhere on lawns and plantations of the freshest green; and the trees, though not fully clothed, were in that delightful state when farther beauty is known to be at hand, and when, while much is actually given to the sight, more yet remains for the imagination.”

“None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.”

“And if something should be found, particularly in the first part of the dissertation, that one is generally not accustomed to come across in scholarly writings, the reader must forgive my jocundity, just as I, in order to lighten the burden, sometimes sing at my work.”

“We cannot write well or truly but what we write with gusto.”

“Writing does for me what giving milk does for a cow.”

“One of the most important rules for me is: Don't ever defend myself. If we could put this one principle into practice, how much more simple life would be.”

“When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind.”

“But a public oration is an escapade, a non-committal, an apology, a gag, and not a communication, not a speech, not a man.”