"I go too long without picking up..." - Quote by Jane Austen

“Oh!” said she, “I heard you before, but I could not immediately determine what to say in reply. You wanted me, I know, to say ‘Yes,’ that you might have the pleasure of despising my taste; but I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes, and cheating a person of their premeditated contempt. I have, therefore made up my mind to tell you, that I do not want to dance a reel at all--and now despise me if you dare.” “Indeed I do not dare.”

“Of this she was perfectly unaware; to her he was only the man who had made himself agreeable nowhere, and who had not thought her handsome enough to dance with.”

“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.”

“It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.”

“Once you've put one of his [Henry James] books down, you simply can't pick it up again.”

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature.”

“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.”

“Morning work! By the blushes of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be man's morning work in this world?”

“A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat exceptfrom within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.”