“There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.”

“Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves.”

“When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene.”

“But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever.”

“You feel, as you always do, what is most to the credit of human nature.  —Such feelings ought to be investigated, that they may know themselves.”

“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”

“Depend upon it, you see but half. You see the evil, but you do not see the consolation. There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere—and those evil–minded observers, dearest Mary, who make much of a little, are more taken in and deceived than the parties themselves.”