“…for what after all is Youth and Beauty?”

“What is passable in youth is detestable in later age”

“Her companion's discourse now sunk from its hitherto animated pitch, to nothing more than a short, decisive sentence of praise or condemnation on the face of every woman they met; and Catherine, after listening and agreeing as long as she could,with all the civility and deference of the youthful female mind, fearful of hazarding an opinion of its own in opposition to that of a self-assured man, especially where the beauty of her own sex is concerned, ventured at length to vary the subject...”

“The older a person grows, Harriet, the more important it is that their manners should not be bad,—the more glaring and disgusting any loudness, or coarseness, or awkwardness becomes. What is passable in youth is detestable in later age.”

“Such squeamish youths as cannot bear to be connected with a little absurdity are not worth a regret.”

“Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing after all.”

“My characters shall have, after a little trouble, all that they desire.”