“It is only poverty that makes celibacy contemptible. A single woman of good fortune is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else.”

“A single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else.”

“The pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety.-Sense and Sensibility”

“It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for any body who asks her.”

“She was nothing more than a mere good-tempered, civil and obliging Young Woman; as such we could scarcely dislike her -- she was only an Object of Contempt”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

“Oh! to be sure," cried Emma, "it is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always imagines a woman to be ready for any body who asks her.”