Jane Austen

"Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody."

"Good-humoured, unaffected girls, will not do for a man who has been used to sensible women. They are two distinct orders of being."

"Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance."

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

"It is always incomprehensible to a man that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage."

"Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything."

"Respect for right conduct is felt by every body."

"Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony."

"There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart."

"They are much to be pitied who have not been given a taste for nature early in life."

"To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment."

"Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. It is not fair. He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of the mouths of other people."

"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."