Jane Austen — "I have just discovered that I am a very bad correspondent."

"Laugh at me as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion."

"I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives."

"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 was a monstrous deal of stupid quizzing and common-place nonsense talked, but scarcely any wit."

"I could not sit seriously down to write a serious novel without making fun of it and of myself."