Jane Austen’s Emma is a lofty testament to her writing prowess. She conjured one of the most renowned characters in literature, Emma Woodhouse. She is that type of character you love to hate and you hate to love.
More importantly, Austen displayed her entire repertoire by painting a wonderful picture of rural England, its customs, its people and its atmosphere. Her talent and her works transcend time periods.
Without a doubt, Jane Austen is a master of her craft. She is one of the pillars of English literature. Her mastery of language is nothing short of breathtaking. She possesses that uncanny ability of forming an amalgamation of words that suit the book’s atmosphere. In Emma, that is even more palpable. Here are some amazing lines picked up from this classical work.
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“The youth and cheerfulness of morning are in happy analogy, and of powerful operation; and if the distress be not poignant enough to keep the eyes unclosed, they will be sure to open to sensations of softened pain and brighter hope.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma
“And have you never known the pleasure and triumph of a lucky guess? I pity you. I thought you cleverer; for depend upon it, a lucky guess is never merely luck. There is always some talent in it.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma
“Seldom, very seldom does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma
“A very narrow income has a tendency to contract the mind, and sour the temper. Those who can barely live, and who live perforce in a very small, and generally every inferior, society, society, may well be illiberal and cross.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma
“I do suspect that he is not really necessary to my happiness. So much the better. I certainly will not persuade myself to feel more than I do. I am quite enough in love. I should be sorry to be more.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma
“I do not know whether it ought to be so, but certainly silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way. Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma
“She looked back as well as she could; but it was all confusion. She had taken up the idea, she supposed and made everything bend to it.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma
“I certainly must. This sensation of listlessness, weariness, stupidity, this disinclination to sit down and employ myself, this feeling of everything’s being dull and insipid about the house! I must be in love; I should be the oddest creature in the world if I were not.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma
“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart. There is nothing to be compared to it. Warmth and tenderness of heart, with an affectionate, open manner, will beat all the clearness of head in the world, for attraction: I am sure it will.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma
“Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing; but I have never been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma
“I cannot make speeches, Emma.
If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth from me. I have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma
“There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma
How about you fellow readers, what lines from this English classic have caught your attention? Share it in the comment box!
Happy reading!
