Thursday, November 10, 2011

Sense and Sensibility Book Quotes

Miss Georgiana Darcy

In honor of Sense and Sensibility Week, my Quote of the Week post will revolve around--you guessed it--Sense and Sensibility. Miss Georgiana Darcy already posted all my favorite quotes from the movie (no, I don't hold it against her, I'm too nice) so I will have some fun posting quotes from the book. Here are a few of my favorites.

Disclaimer: I'm currently rereading S&S, and I'm only about halfway through it. These are the quotes I've encountered as I reread, and are most certainly not a comprehensive list of all the good quotes in the book. If you think of one (or several) that I've left out, please do leave a comment so we all can enjoy it.

"Esteem him! Like him! Cold-hearted Elinor! Oh! worse than cold-hearted! Ashamed of being otherwise. Use those worlds again and I will leave the room this moment."
~Marianne Dashwood.


"People always live forever when there is an annuity to be paid them."
~Fanny Dashwood

On every formal visit a child ought to be of the party, by way of provision for discourse. In the present case [the Dashwoods' visit with Lady Middleton and her little boy] it took up ten minutes to determine whether the boy were most like his father, or mother, and in what particular he resembled either, for of course every body differed, and every body was astonished at the opinion of the others.
~chapter 6


[Mrs. Dashwood and Marianne] gave themselves up wholly to their sorrow, seeking increase of wretchedness in every reflection that could afford it, and resolved against ever admitting consolation in future.
~chapter 1
It was impossible for her to say what she did not feel, however trivial the occasion; and upon Elinor therefore the whole task of telling lies when politeness required it, always fell.
~chapter 21

[Colonel Brandon's] pleasure in music, though it amounted not to that ecstatic delight which alone could sympathize with [Marianne's] own, was estimable when contrasted against the horrible insensibility of the others; and she was reasonable enough to allowe that a man of five and thirty might well have outlived all acuteness of feeling and every exquisite power of enjoyment. She was perfectly disposed to make every allowance for the colonel's advanced state of life which humanity required.
~chapter 7

"As for Marianne, I know her greatness of soul, there would not be music enough in London to content her. And books!--Thomson, Cowper, Scott--she would buy them all over and over again; she would buy up every copy, I believe, to prevent their falling into unworthy hands; and she would have every book that tells her how to admire an old twisted tree."
~Edward Ferrars

"I wish," said Margaret, striking out a novel thought, "that somebody would give us a large fortune a-piece!" ~chapter 17
"Now there is no one to regard [the leaves at Norland]. They are seen only as a nuisance, swept hastily off, and driven as much as possible from the sight."
"It is not every one," said Elinor [to Marianne], "who has your passion for dead leaves."
~chapter 16

"Oh, dear, yes, I know [Mr. Willoughby] extremely well! Not that I ever spoke to him indeed; but I have seen him for ever in town." ~Mrs. Charlotte Palmer


"How horrid all this is! Such weather makes every thing and every body disgusting. Dulness is as much produced within doors as without, by rain. It makes one detest all one's acquaintance. What the devil does Sir John mean by not having a billiard room in his house? How few people know what comfort is! Sir John is as stupid as the weather."
~Mr. Palmer

Mrs. Palmer's eye was now caught by the drawings which hung round the room ... "I declare they are quite charming! I could look at them for ever." And then sitting down again, she very soon forgot that there were any such things in the room.
~chapter 19



"Well, said I, all I can say is, that if it is true, [Willoughby] has used a young lady of my acquaintance abominably ill, and I wish with all my heart that his wife may plague his heart out." ~Mrs. Jennings

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