{northanger abbey, jane austen}
"'catherine grows quite a good-looking girl,--she is almost pretty to-day,' were words which caught her ears now and then; and how welcome were the sounds! to look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain the first fifteen years of her life, than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive."
"if adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad."
"mrs. allen was one of that numerous class of females, who society can raise no other emotion than surprise at there being any men in the world who could like them well enough to marry them."
"she longed to dance, but she had not an acquaintance in the room."
"it must be very improper that a young lady should dream of a gentleman before the gentleman is first known to have dreamt of her."
"friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love."
"she hoped to be more fortunate the next day; and when her wishes for fine weather were answered by seeing a beautiful morning, she hardly felt a doubt of it; for a fine sunday in bath empties every house of its inhabitants, and all the world appears on such an occasion to walk about and tell their acquaintance what a charming day it is."
"this sort of mysteriousness, which is always so becoming in a hero, threw a fresh grace in catherine's imagination around his person and manners, and increased her anxiety to know more of him."
"'oh! i am delighted with the book! i should like to spend my whole life in reading it. i assure you, if it had not been to meet you, i would not have come away from it for all the world.'"
"her own family were plain matter-of-fact people, who seldom aimed at wit of any kind; her father, at the utmost, being contented with a pun, and her mother with a proverb; they were not in the habit therefore of telling lies to increase their importance, or of asserting at one moment when they would contradict the next."
"dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim."
"...and nothing but the shortness of the time prevented her buying a new one [dress] for the evening. this would have been an error in judgment, great though not uncommon, from which one of the other sex rather than her own, a brother rather than a great aunt might have warned her, for man only can be aware of the insensibility of man towards a new gown. it would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire; how little it is biassed by the texture of their muslin, and how unsusceptible of peculiar tenderness towards the spotted, the sprigged, the mull or the jackonet. woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. no man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter.--but not one of these grave relfections troubled the tranquillity of catherine."
"every young lady may feel for my heroine in this critical moment, for every young lady has at some time or other known the same agitation. all have been, or at least all have believed themselves to be, in danger from the pursuit of some one whom they wished to avoid; and all have been anxious for the attentions of some one whom they wished to please."
"'and such is your definition of matrimony and dancing. taken in that light certainly, their resemblance is not striking; but i think i could place them in such a view.--you will allow, that in both, man has the advantage of choice, woman only the power of refusal; that in both it is an engagement between man and woman, formed for the advantage of each; and that when once entered into, they belong exclusively to each other till the moment of its dissolution; that it is their duty, each to endeavour to give the other no cause for wishing that he or she had bestowed themselves elsewhere, and their best interest to keep their own imaginations from wandering towards the perfections of their neighbours, or fancying that they should have been better off with any one else. you will all this?'"
"catherine's feelings, as she got into the carriage, were in a very unsettled state; divided between regret for the loss of one great pleasure, and the hope of soon enjoying another, almost its equal in degree, however unlike in kind."
"'what one means one day, you know, one may not mean the next. circumstances change, opinions alter.' 'but my opinion of your brother never did alter; it was always the same. you are describing what never happened.'"
"what i say is, why should a brother's happiness be dearer to me than a friend's? you know i carry my notions of friendship pretty high. but, above all things, my dear catherine, do not be in a hurry. take my word for it, that if you are in too great a hurry, you will certainly live to repent it."
"'well!--nay, if it is to be guess-work, let us all guess for ourselves. to be guided by second-hand conjecture is pitiful.'"
"to be driven by him, next to dancing with him, was certainly the greatest happiness in the world."
"'a mother would have been always present. a mother would have been a constant friend; her influence would have been beyond all other.'"
"the formidable henry soon followed her into the room, and the only difference in his behaviour to her, was that he paid her rather more attention than usual. catherine had never wanted comfort more, and he looked as if he was aware of it."
"wherever you are, you should always be contented, but especially at home, because there you must spend the most of your time."
"the person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."
"there is nothing i would not do for those who are really my friends. i have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature."
find my other 2013 reading list posts here: les mis {part one}, les mis {part two}, march reads {part one}, march reads {part two}, when it rains, through the looking glass
