Great Throughts Treasury

"The coyest maids make the fondest wives."

"The first vice of the first woman was curiosity, and it runs through the whole sex."

"That dangerous but too commonly received notion, that a reformed rake makes the best husband."

"The eye is the casement at which the heart generally looks out. Many a woman who will not show herself at the door, has tipt the sly, the intelligible wink from the window."

"The grace that makes every grace amiable is humility."

"The most innocent heart is generally the most credulous."

"The mind is often indicated by outward dress."

"The person who is worthiest to live, is fittest to die."

"The old beldam, throwing herself into a chair, fell a blubbering and exclaiming. And the pacifying of her, and endeavouring to reconcile the lady to her, took up till near one o?clock."

"The old dragon straddled up to her, with her arms kimboed again, her eye-brows erect, like the bristles upon a hog?s back, and scowling over her shortened nose, more than half hid her ferret eyes. Her mouth was distorted. She pouted out her blubber-lips, as if to bellows up wind and sputter into her horse-nostrils; and her chin was curdled, and more than usually prominent with passion."

"The readiness with which women are apt to forgive the men who have deceived other women; and that inconsiderate notion of too many of them that a reformed rake makes the best husband, are great encouragements to vile men to continue their profligacy."

"The person who will bear much shall have much to bear, all the world through."

"The uselessness and expensiveness of modern women multiply bachelors."

"The seeds of Death are sown in us when we begin to live, and grow up till, like rampant weeds, they choak the tender flower of life."

"The wife of a self-admirer must expect a very cold and negligent husband."

"The want of reward is no warrant for us to dispense with our duty."

"The woman who thinks meanly of herself is any man's purchase."

"There cannot be any great happiness in the married life except each in turn give up his or her own humors and lesser inclinations."

"There is but one pride pardonable; that of being above doing a base or dishonorable action."

"There is more joy in expectation and preparation than in fruition."

"There is such a pretty Air of Romance, as you relate them, in your Plots, and my Plots, that I shall be better directed in what manner to wind up the Catastrophe of the pretty Novel."

"Tho' Beauty is generally the creature of fancy, yet are there some who will be Beauties in every eye."

"Those who doubt themselves most generally err least."

"Things we wish to be true are apt to gain too ready credit with us."

"Those commands of superiors which are contrary to our first duties are not to be obeyed."

"Thou?lt observe, Belford, that though this was written afterwards, yet (as in other places) I write it as it was spoken and happened, as if I had retired to put down every sentence as spoken. I know thou likest this lively present-tense manner, as it is one of my peculiars."

"Thus foolishly dialogu?d I with my Heart; and yet all the time this Heart is Pamela."

"Thus she ran on, almost foaming with passion; till, quite out of patience, I said, No more of your violence, Bella.?Had I known in what way you designed to come up, you should not have found my chamber-door open?talk to your servant in this manner. Unlike you, as I bless God I am, I am nevertheless your sister?and let me tell you that I won?t go to-morrow, nor the next day, nor next day to that?except I am dragged away by violence."

"To tease by ceaseless repetition; like the unvaried continued action of a bore."

"Twelve, one, two, three, four?any hour, I care not?if you mean me honourably, let me go out of this hated house!"

"Virtue only is the true beauty."

"Twenty-four is a prudent age for women to marry at."

"We all know by theory that there is no permanent happiness in this life: But the weight of the precept is not felt in the same manner as when it is confirmed to us by a heavy calamity."

"Vice turns beauty into deformity."

"We can all be good when we have no temptation or provocation to the contrary."

"What honest man would not rather be the sufferer than the defrauder?"

"We are all of us very ready to be persuaded on the side of inclination."

"What pity that Religion and Love, which heighten our relish for the things of both worlds, should ever run the human heart into enthusiasm, superstition, or uncharitableness!"

"What we look upon as our greatest unhappiness in a difficulty we are involved in, may possibly be the evil hastening to its crisis, and happy days may ensue."

"What the unpenetrating world call Humanity, is often no more than a weak mind pitying itself."

"What! not if your father or your mother command it?Girl! said she, intending another word, by her pause and manner before it came out."

"When conscience acquits, who shall condemn?"

"Who ever was in fault, Self being judge?"

"Whom we fear more than love, we are not far from hating."

"With two ?Hoh?Madams,? she accosted the frighted fair one; who, terrified, caught hold of my sleeve."

"Will is this moment returned. No coach to be got either for love or money."

"Wicked words are the prelude to wicked deeds."

"Will is not yet come back. Near eleven."

"Women are sometimes drawn in to believe against probability by the unwillingness they have to doubt their own merit."

"Women love those best (whether men, women, or children) who give them most pain."