It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;—it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.
Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate. She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favourite maxims.
The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love.
Had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.
What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering?
I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter in all my feelings; the same books, the same music must charm us both.
What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering. For weeks, Marianne, I've had this pressing on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature. It was forced on me by the very person whose prior claims ruined all my hope. I have endured her exultations again and again whilst knowing myself to be divided from Edward forever. Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.
Always resignation and acceptance. Always prudence and honour and duty. Elinor, where is your heart?
That is what I like; that is what a young man ought to be. Whatever be his pursuits, his eagerness in them should know no moderation, and leave him no sense of fatigue.
Cold-hearted Elinor! Oh! Worse than cold-hearted! Ashamed of being otherwise.--Marianne Dashwood
At my time of life opinions are tolerably fixed. It is not likely that I should now see or hear anything to change them.
And sometimes I have kept my feelings to myself, because I could find no language to describe them in.
A woman of seven and twenty, said Marianne, after pausing a moment, can never hope to feel or inspire affection again.
Marianne Dashwood looks at gray skies and sees blue. That's all very well, and it's not something you ever want entirely to lose. But you must lose a little of it; otherwise you're going to get wet.
or simply:
