Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen that was first published in 1811. It was the first of Austen's novels to be published, under the pseudonym "A Lady."

• He was not an ill-disposed young man, unless to be rather cold hearted, and rather selfish, is to be ill-disposed. (Volume 1, Chapter 1)

• People always live forever when there is an annuity to be paid them . . .

• He was not handsome, and his manners required intimacy to make them pleasing. He was too diffident to do justice to himself; but when his natural shyness was overcome, his behaviour gave every indication of an open, affectionate heart.

• Her mind did become settled, but it was settled in a gloomy dejection. She felt the loss of Willoughby's character yet more heavily than she had felt the loss of his heart...

• Fortunately for those who pay their court through such foibles, a fond mother, though, in pursuit of praise for her children, the most rapacious of human beings, is likewise the most credulous; her demands are exorbitant; but she will swallow any thing...

• Elinor was to be the comforter of others in her own distresses, no less than in theirs; and all the comfort that could be given by assurances of her own composure of mind, and a very earnest vindication of Edward from every charge but of imprudence, was readily offered.

• The pleasantness of an employment does not always evince its propriety.

• Yet there is something so amiable in the prejudices of a young mind, that one is sorry to see them give way to the reception of more general opinions.

• They gave themselves up wholly to their sorrow, seeking increase of wretchedness in every reflection that could afford it, and resolved against ever admitting consolation in future.

• His own enjoyment, or his own ease, was, in every particular, his ruling principle.

• I suppose you know, ma'am, that Mr. Ferrars is married.

• As it was impossible however now to prevent their coming, Lady Middleton resigned herself to the idea of it, with all the philosophy of a well bred woman, contenting herself with merely giving her husband a gentle reprimand on the subject five or six times every day. (Volume 1, Chapter 21)