"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."… — Jane Austen

It is probable that she will neither love so well, nor flirt so well, as she might do either singly., p. 302, 2013

A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

But historians are not accountable for the difficulty of learning to read; and even you yourself, who do not altogether seem particularly friendly to very severe, very intense application, may perhaps be brought to acknowledge that it is very well worth while to be tormented for two or three years of one's life, for the sake of being able to read all the rest of it., p. 228, 2013