Austen Said:

"Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy."

"Reserved! Am I reserved, Marianne?"

"I do not understand you,"

"Reserved! — how, in what manner? What am I to tell you? What can you suppose?"

"I am going into the village to see my horses,"

"as you are not yet ready for breakfast; I shall be back again presently."

"You must not enquire too far, Marianne — remember I have no knowledge in the picturesque, and I shall offend you by my ignorance and want of taste if we come to particulars. I shall call hills steep, which ought to be bold; surfaces strange and uncouth, which ought to be irregular and rugged; and distant objects out of sight, which ought only to be indistinct through the soft medium of a hazy atmosphere. You must be satisfied with such admiration as I can honestly give. I call it a very fine country — the hills are steep, the woods seem full of fine timber, and the valley looks comfortable and snug — with rich meadows and several neat farm houses scattered here and there. It exactly answers my idea of a fine country, because it unites beauty with utility — and I dare say it is a picturesque one too, because you admire it; I can easily believe it to be full of rocks and promontories, grey moss and brush wood, but these are all lost on me. I know nothing of the picturesque."

"I am convinced,"

"that you really feel all the delight in a fine prospect which you profess to feel. But, in return, your sister must allow me to feel no more than I profess. I like a fine prospect, but not on picturesque principles. I do not like crooked, twisted, blasted trees. I admire them much more if they are tall, straight, and flourishing. I do not like ruined, tattered cottages. I am not fond of nettles or thistles, or heath blossoms. I have more pleasure in a snug farm-house than a watch-tower — and a troop of tidy, happy villages please me better than the finest banditti in the world."

"Yes; it is my sister's hair. The setting always casts a different shade on it, you know."

"You MUST drink tea with us to night,"

"for we shall be quite alone — and tomorrow you must absolutely dine with us, for we shall be a large party."

"I wish with all my soul,"

"that Willoughby were among us again."

"And who is Willoughby?"

"I have been guessing. Shall I tell you my guess?"

"Shall I tell you."

"Well then; I guess that Mr. Willoughby hunts."

I do not doubt it,"

He had no pleasure at Norland; he detested being in town;

He valued their kindness beyond any thing, and his greatest happiness was in being with them.

"I do assure you,"

"that I have long thought on this point, as you think now. It has been, and is, and probably will always be a heavy misfortune to me, that I have had no necessary business to engage me, no profession to give me employment, or afford me any thing like independence. But unfortunately my own nicety, and the nicety of my friends, have made me what I am, an idle, helpless being. We never could agree in our choice of a profession. I always preferred the church, as I still do. But that was not smart enough for my family. They recommended the army. That was a great deal too smart for me. The law was allowed to be genteel enough; many young men, who had chambers in the Temple, made a very good appearance in the first circles, and drove about town in very knowing gigs. But I had no inclination for the law, even in this less abstruse study of it, which my family approved. As for the navy, it had fashion on its side, but I was too old when the subject was first started to enter it — and, at length, as there was no necessity for my having any profession at all, as I might be as dashing and expensive without a red coat on my back as with one, idleness was pronounced on the whole to be most advantageous and honourable, and a young man of eighteen is not in general so earnestly bent on being busy as to resist the solicitations of his friends to do nothing. I was therefore entered at Oxford and have been properly idle ever since."

"They will be brought up,"

"to be as unlike myself as is possible. In feeling, in action, in condition, in every thing."

"I think,"

"that I may defy many months to produce any good to me."

"Well,"

"we have brought you some strangers. How do you like them?"

"Never mind if they do. It is only the Palmers. Charlotte is very pretty, I can tell you. You may see her if you look this way."

"Where is Marianne? Has she run away because we are come? I see her instrument is open."

"No, none at all,"

"Here comes Marianne,"

"Now, Palmer, you shall see a monstrous pretty girl."

the carriage should be sent for them and they must come.

"How horrid all this is!"

"Such weather makes every thing and every body disgusting. Dullness is as much produced within doors as without, by rain. It makes one detest all one's acquaintance. What the devil does Sir John mean by not having a billiard room in his house? How few people know what comfort is! Sir John is as stupid as the weather."

"I am afraid, Miss Marianne,"

"you have not been able to take your usual walk to Allenham today."

"Much nearer thirty,"

"As vile a spot as I ever saw in my life,"

"My dear,"

"it is very provoking that we should be so few. Why did not you ask the Gilberts to come to us today?"

"Then you would be very ill-bred,"

"I did not know I contradicted any body in calling your mother ill-bred."

"Certainly,"

"I came into Devonshire with no other view."

"No,"

"I never said any thing so irrational. Don't palm all your abuses of languages upon me."

their being the sweetest girls in the world.