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

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

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

“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.”

“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. ”

“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.”

“That I can read and be happy while I am reading, is a great blessing.”