"A woman, especially, if she have the..." - Quote by Jane Austen
A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.
More by Jane Austen
“I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.”
“Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want.”
“No man is offended by another man's admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment.”
More on Women
“If what passed as nonviolence does not enable people to protect the honour of women, or if it does not enable women to protect their own honour, it is not nonviolence.”
“The history of most women is hidden either by silence, or by flourishes and ornaments that amount to silence.”
“Before marriage, a girl has to make love to a man to hold him. After marriage, she has to hold him to make love to him.”
More on Society
“These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of everyone of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.”
“Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,Hath not old custom made this life more sweetThan that of painted pomp? Are not these woodsMore free from peril than the envious court?”
“We are a nation of sheep, and someone else owns the grass.”