“The end of a novel, like the end of children’s dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugar-plum”

“There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.”

“But she knew this,—that it was necessary for her happiness that she should devote herself to some one. All the elegancies and outward charms of life were delightful, if only they could be used as the means to some end. As an end themselves they were nothing. ”

“Men and women ain't lumps of sugar. They don't melt because the water is sometimes warm.”

“Who would ever think of learning to live out of an English novel?”

“To have her meals, and her daily walk, and her fill of novels, and to be left alone, was all that she asked of the gods.”

“Romance is very pretty in novels, but the romance of a life is always a melancholy matter. They are most happy who have no story to tell.”