favorite era of reading

"but angry people are not always wise." {pride and prejudice, jane austen}

"i could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine." {pride and prejudice, jane austen}

"vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously.  a person may be proud without being vain.  pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us." {pride and prejudice, jane austen}

"a lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment."  {pride and prejudice, jane austen}

"think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure."  {pride and prejudice, jane austen}

"as moderate as those of the rest of the world, i believe.  i wish as well as every body else to be perfectly happy; but, like every body else it must be in my own way.  greatness will not make me so."  {sense and sensibility, jane austen}

"between them no subject is finished, no communication is even made, till it has been made at least twenty times over."  {sense and sensibility, jane austen}

"don't cry so bitterly, but remember this day, and resolve with all your soul that you will never know another like it.  jo, dear, we all have our temptations, some far greater than yours, and it often takes us all our lives to conquer them." {little women, louisa may alcott}

"i want my daughters to be beautiful, accomplished, and good; to be admired, loved, and respected; to have a happy youth, to be well and wisely married, and to lead useful, pleasant lives, with as little care and sorrow to try them as God sees to send.  to be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing which can happen to a woman, and i sincerely hope my girls may know this beautiful experience.  it is natural to think of it, meg, right to hope and wait for it, and wise to prepare for it, so that when the happy time comes, you may feel ready for the duties and worthy of the joy.  my dear girls, i am ambitious for you, but not to have you make a dash in the world--marry rich men merely because they are rich, or have splendid houses, which are not homes because love is wanting.  money is a needful and precious thing--and, when well used, a noble thing--but i never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for.  i'd rather see you poor men's wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace."  {little women, louisa may alcott}

"then let me advise you to take up your little burdens again, for though they seem heavy sometimes, they are good for us, and lighten as we learn to carry them."  {little women, louisa may alcott}

"i don't pretend to be wise, but i am observing, and i see a great deal more than you'd imagine.  i'm interested in other people's experiences and inconsistencies, and though i can't explain, i remember and use them for my own benefit."  {little women, louisa may alcott}



"...he did not own it till long afterward; men seldom do, for when women are the advisers, the lords of creation don't take the advice till they have persuaded themselves that it is just what they intended to do; then they act upon it, and, if it succeeds, they give the weaker vessel half the credit of it; if it fails, they generously give her the whole." {little women, louisa may alcott}