Saturday, June 8, 2013

Mansfield Park By Jane Austen

But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.

Oh! yes, I am not at all ashamed of it. I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly; I do not like to have people throw themselves away; but everybody should marry as soon as they can do it to advantage.

Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.

At any rate, it is safer to leave people to their own devices on such subjects. Everybody likes to go their own way-- to choose their own time and manner of devotion. The obligation of attendance, the formality, the restraint, the length of time-- altogether it is a formidable thing, and what nobody likes; and if the good people who used to kneel and gape in that gallery could have foreseen that the time would ever come when men and women might lie another ten minutes in bed, when they woke with a headache without danger of reprobation, because chapel was missed, they would have jumped with joy and envy.