Dorothy Osborne Quotes

• Tis an admirable thing to see how some people will labour to find out terms that may obscure a plain sense, like a gentleman I knew, who would never say 'the weather grew cold,' but that 'winter begins to salute us.' I have no patience for such coxcombs.

  Dorothy Osborne

  Winter, Weather, People

  6 Copy quote

• To marry for love were no reproachful thing if we did not see that of ten thousand couples that do it, hardly one can be brought for an example that it may be done and not repented afterwards.

  Dorothy Osborne

  Marriage, Couple, Example

  Dorothy Osborne (1903). “The Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple”

  4 Copy quote

• But 'tis a sad thing that all one's happiness is only that the world does not know you are miserable.

  Dorothy Osborne

  Doe, World, Miserable

  4 Copy quote

• Surfeits kill more than fasting does.

  Dorothy Osborne

  Fasting, Doe, Eating

  Dorothy Osborne (1914). “The letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple”

  4 Copy quote

• Will the kindness of this letter excuse the shortness of it?

  Dorothy Osborne

  Kindness, Letters, Excuse

  Dorothy Osborne, Edward Abbott Parry (2014). “Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652–54”, p.165, Cambridge University Press

  4 Copy quote

• What an age do we live in, when 'tis a miracle if in ten couples that are married, two of them live so as not to publish to the world that they cannot agree.

  Dorothy Osborne

  Marriage, Couple, Two

  Dorothy Osborne, Edward Abbott Parry (2014). “Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652–54”, p.184, Cambridge University Press

  4 Copy quote

• I do not know that ever I desired anything earnestly in my life but 'twas denied me, and I am many times afraid to wish a thing merely lest my fortune should take that occasion to use me ill.

  Dorothy Osborne

  Fear, Wish, Use

  Dorothy Osborne, Edward Abbott Parry (2014). “Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652–54”, p.49, Cambridge University Press

  4 Copy quote

• All letters, methinks, should be free and easy as one's discourse, not studied, as an oration, nor made up of hard words like a charm.

  Dorothy Osborne

  Letters, Easy, Charm

  Letter to Sir William Temple, October 1653

  4 Copy quote

• I find so many things to fear and so few to hope.

  Dorothy Osborne

  Fear

  Dorothy Osborne, Edward Abbott Parry (2014). “Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652–54”, p.279, Cambridge University Press

  4 Copy quote

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin