Emma Quotes

Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.

I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other.

I cannot make speeches, Emma...If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth from me. I have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it.

Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.

There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

You must be the best judge of your own happiness.

Men of sense, whatever you may choose to say, do not want silly wives.

Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing; but I have never been in love ; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall.

Indeed, I am very sorry to be right in this instance. I would much rather have been merry than wise.

I lay it down as a general rule, Harriet, that if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him.

She was one of those, who, having, once begun, would be always in love.

Vanity working on a weak head produces every sort of mischief.

Mr. Knightley, if I have not spoken, it is because I am afraid I will awaken myself from this dream.

Why not seize the pleasure at once? -- How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!.

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart,' said she afterwards to herself.  'There is nothing to be compared to it.  Warmth and tenderness of heart, with an affectionate, open manner, will beat all the clearness of head in the world, for attraction: I am sure it will.

This sweetest and best of all creatures, faultless in spite of all her faults.

I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.

It is not every man's fate to marry the woman who loves him best.

Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable.

And have you never known the pleasure and triumph of a lucky guess? I pity you. I thought you cleverer; for depend upon it, a lucky guess is never merely luck. There is always some talent in it.

Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual of that family may be.

There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution. - Mr. Knightley.

It was a delightful visit;-perfect, in being much too short.

I do suspect that he is not really necessary to my happiness.

The most incomprehensible thing in the world to a man, is a woman who rejects his offer of marriage!.

A woman is not to marry a man merely because she is asked, or because he is attached to her, and can write a tolerable letter.

if a woman doubts as to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse him. If she can hesitate as to `Yes,' she ought to say `No' directly. It is not a state to be safely entered into with doubtful feelings, with half a heart.

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

She was happy, she knew she was happy, and knew she ought to be happy.

Evil to some is always good to others.

I would much rather have been merry than wise.

Time will generally lessen the interest of every attachment not within the daily circle.

I certainly must,' said she. 'This sensation of listlessness, weariness, stupidity, this disinclination to sit down and employ myself, this feeling of everything's being dull and insipid about the house! I must be in love; I should be the oddest creature in the world if I were not.

I don't approve of surprises. The pleasure is never enhanced and the inconvenience is considerable.

One man's style must not be the rule of another's.

Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.

It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.

A single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else.

If things are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.

I certainly will not persuade myself to feel more than I do. I am quite enough in love. I should be sorry to be more.

A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.

Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing! but I have never been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall. And, without love, I am sure I should be a fool to change such a situation as mine.

Mr. Knightley seemed to be trying not to smile; and succeeded without difficulty, upon Mrs. Elton's beginning to talk to him.

Where the waters do agree, it is quite wonderful the relief they give.

It has sunk him, I cannot say how much it has sunk him in my opinion. So unlike what a man should be!-None of that upright integrity, that strict adherence to truth and principle, that distain of trick and littleness, which a man should display in every transaction of his life.

The ladies here probably exchanged looks which meant, 'Men never know when things are dirty or not;' and the gentlemen perhaps thought each to himself, 'Women will have their little nonsense and needless cares.

...faultless in spite of all her faults...

never could I expect to be so truly beloved and important; so always first and always right in any man's eyes as I am in my father's...

My Emma, does not every thing serve to prove more and more the beauty of truth and sincerity in all our dealings with each other?.

but a sanguine temper, though for ever expecting more good than occurs, does not always pay for its hopes by any proportionate depression. it soon flies over the present failure, and begins to hope again.

General benevolence, but not general friendship, make a man what he ought to be.

Respect for right conduct is felt by every body.

That is the case with us all, papa. One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

She looked back as well as she could; but it was all confusion. She had taken up the idea, she supposed and made everything bend to it.

The youth and cheerfulness of morning are in happy analogy, and of powerful operation; and if the distress be not poignant enough to keep the eyes unclosed, they will be sure to open to sensations of softened pain and brighter hope.

A very narrow income has a tendency to contract the mind, and sour the temper. Those who can barely live, and who live perforce in a very small, and generally very inferior, society, may well be illiberal and cross.

Where the wound had been given, there must the cure be found, if any where.

My being charming…is not quite enough to induce me to marry. I must find other people charming - one other person at least.

How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!.

I suppose there may be a hundred different ways of being in love.

The I examined my own heart. And there you were. Never, I fear, to be removed.

With insufferable vanity had she believed herself in the secret of everybody's feelings; with unpardonable arrogance proposed to arrange everybody's destiny. She was proved to have been universally mistaken; and she had not quite done nothing — for she had done mischief.

I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry. Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing! but I have never been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall.

No, indeed, I shall grant you nothing. I always take the part of my own sex. I do indeed. I give you notice-- You will find me a formidable antagonist on that point. I always stand up for women.

I do not find myself making any use of the word sacrifice.

I am quite enough in love. I should be sorry to be any more.

It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been known of young people passing many, many months successively, without being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue either to body or mind;-- but when a beginning is made-- when the felicities of rapid motion have once been, though slightly, felt-- it must be a very heavy set that does not ask for more.