Mansfield Park Quotes
"To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love."
"One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty."
"We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him."
"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!"
"Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure."
"The error is plain enough; such girls are ill brought up. They are always acting upon motives of vanity, and there is no more real modesty in their behaviour before they appear in public than afterwards."
"I wish you had saved yourself this walk home."
"Nothing ever fatigues me but doing what I do not like."
"I am afraid the avenue stands a bad chance, Fanny."
"I must say, ma'am, that Fanny is as little upon the sofa as anybody in the house."
"I cannot but think that good horsemanship has a great deal to do with the mind."
"If I could wish it for my own sake, I would not do so unjust a thing by the poor girl."
"The soup would be sent round in a most spiritless manner, wine drunk without any smiles or agreeable trifling, and the venison cut up without supplying one pleasant anecdote of any former haunch."
"It is a great deal too bad. But when my aunt has got a fancy in her head, nothing can stop her."
"I am convinced to the contrary. Nobody is fonder of the exercise of talent in young people, or promotes it more, than my father."
"It is to his credit, and I think it gives his sister pleasure. She does not like his unsettled habits."
"If we are to act, let it be in a theatre completely fitted up with pit, box, and gallery."
"I cannot agree with you—I am convinced that my father would totally disapprove it."
"It would show great want of feeling on my father's account, absent as he is, and in some degree of constant danger."
"Absolute nonsense! The innovation, if not wrong as an innovation, will be wrong as an expense."
"We must have a curtain, a few yards of green baize for a curtain, and perhaps that may be enough."
"It is impossible that your own observation can have given you much knowledge of the clergy."
"It must make him think; and I have no doubt that he oftener endeavours to restrain himself than he would if he had been anything but a clergyman."
"I shall walk down immediately after breakfast."
"I admire your little establishment exceedingly."
"I cannot before Mr. Yates speak what I feel as to this play, without reflecting on his friends at Ecclesford."
"If I were to decline the part, said Maria, Julia would certainly take it."
"It will be impossible to make anything of it fit for your sister, and we must not suffer her good-nature to be imposed on."
"My advice, said he, calmly, is that you change the play."
"Do not be afraid of my wanting the character."
"I am not going to urge her, replied Mrs. Norris, sharply."
"It was impossible for many of the others not to smile."
"‘We have all been more or less to blame,’ said he, ‘every one of us, excepting Fanny.'"
"He felt it too much, indeed, for many words."
"She had a great deal to insinuate in her own praise."
"‘I cured him at last; but he was very bad all the winter.'"
"‘My dear Sir Thomas, if you had seen the state of the roads that day!'"
"‘I think if we had had the disposal of events...there would have been a difference.'"
"‘Fanny, at what time would you have the carriage come round?'"
"‘I must try to get the better of this. Her looks say, ‘I will not like you.’'"
"‘I cannot imagine why Mrs. Grant should think of asking her.'"
"This was a hard duty, and she was never summoned to it without looking at William as he walked about at his ease in the background of the scene, and longing to be with him."
"She must watch the general arrangements and see how everything was done."
"Fanny's disposition was such that she could never even think of her aunt Norris in the meagreness and cheerlessness of her own small house without reproaching herself for some little want of attention to her when they had been last together."
"Fanny felt obliged to speak. 'You cannot doubt your being missed by many,' said she. 'You will be very much missed.'"
"Fanny felt that there must be a struggle in Edmund's cheerfulness, but it was delightful to see the effort so successfully made."
"The very gown you have been taking notice of is your own generous present to her when dear Mrs. Rushworth married."
"But compliments may be sufficient here. Was his letter a long one? Does he give you much account of what he is doing?"
"Fanny could not bring herself to speak, and Miss Crawford was disappointed."
"Fanny was too urgent, however, and had too many tears in her eyes for denial; and it ended in a gracious 'Well, well,' which was permission."
"You cannot suppose me capable of trying to persuade you to marry against your inclinations."
"It is a part of an Englishman's constitution. His thoughts and beauties are so spread abroad that one touches them everywhere."
"I consider it as most natural that all your family should wish you could return it; but that as you cannot, you have done exactly as you ought in refusing him."
"I have no idea of it. I daresay that, on a comparison of our opinions, they would be found as much alike as they have been used to be."
"It is not by equality of merit that you can be won."
"It is he who sees and worships your merit the strongest, who loves you most devotedly, that has the best right to a return."
"I am sure you would miss me too much for that."
"I am sure of an excellent tenant at half a word."
"You must not prejudice Fanny against him. I must have them love one another."
"Your praise had been given in your attention; that must content them."
"You did not love him—nothing could have justified your accepting him."
"You have proved yourself upright and disinterested, prove yourself grateful and tender-hearted."
"I must hope better things. I am aware, more aware than Crawford can be, that the man who means to make you love him must have very uphill work."
"We are so totally unlike, we are so very, very different in all our inclinations and ways."
"You are mistaken, Fanny. The dissimilarity is not so strong. You are quite enough alike."
"Some opposition here is, I am thoroughly convinced, friendly to matrimonial happiness."
"I would not engage in such a charge, in such an office of high responsibility!"
"You must be sorry for your own indifference."
"I think it ought not to be set down as certain that a man must be acceptable to every woman he may happen to like himself."
"The intimacy thus begun between them was a material advantage to each."
"Susan had read nothing, and Fanny longed to give her a share in her own first pleasures."
"Either his going had been again delayed, or he had yet procured no opportunity of seeing Miss Crawford alone."
"Good sense, like hers, will always act when really called upon."
"He was gone again, glad to get away even from Fanny."
"You have my thoughts exactly as they arise, my dear Fanny."
"Depend upon it there is some mistake, and that a day or two will clear it up."
"The being left with her sister and nephew... had been an advantage entirely thrown away."
"To be listened to and borne with, and hear the voice of kindness and sympathy in return, was everything that could be done for her."
"Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody, not greatly in fault themselves, to tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest."
"It is true that Edmund was very far from happy himself. He was suffering from disappointment and regret, grieving over what was, and wishing for what could never be."
"She had sources of delight that must force their way. She was returned to Mansfield Park, she was useful, she was beloved; she was safe from Mr. Crawford."
"The high spirit and strong passions of Mrs. Rushworth especially were made known to him only in their sad result."
"Her beauty and acquirements had held but a second place. She had been always used to think herself a little inferior to Maria."
"His present state Fanny could hardly bear to think of. There was but one of his children who was not at this time a source of misery to him."
"She must have been a happy creature in spite of all that she felt, or thought she felt, for the distress of those around her."
"He might have made her childhood happier: but it had been an error of judgment only which had given him the appearance of harshness."