Quotations

“Burns comes on at a snail's pace. What a mixty-maxty it is, and sometimes very puzzling.”

Her lively assessment of the difficulties involved in editing Burns · Letter to her Ravelstone correspondent

“I was present when it was asserted that Burns composed the 'Land o' the Leal' on his death-bed, but the parties could not decide why it never appeared in his works. I never answered.”

Showing the extraordinary restraint with which she guarded her literary identity · Letter to a friend on the authorship of The Land o' the Leal

Lady Nairne

“I have not even told Nairne, lest he blab.”

A characteristically amused glimpse of the secrecy surrounding her authorship · Conversation recalled by a Ravelstone acquaintance

Lady Nairne

“Pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked.”

Rejecting unrealistically flawless characters in favour of recognisable human imperfection · Letter to Fanny Knight, 23 March 1817

Jane Austen

“Composition seems to me impossible with a head full of joints of mutton and doses of rhubarb.”

Humorously describing the conflict between creative work and domestic responsibilities · Letter to Cassandra Austen, 8 September 1816

Jane Austen

“But I could no more write a romance than an epic poem. I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life.”

Rejecting pressure to abandon the kind of fiction best suited to her talents · Letter to James Stanier Clarke, 1 April 1816

Jane Austen

“I detest a quarto. Capt. Pasley's book is too good for their society. They will not understand a man who condenses his thoughts into an octavo.”

Playfully favouring intellectual economy over ponderous presentation · Letter to Cassandra Austen, February 1813

Jane Austen

“I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least I do not know.”

Expressing her deep affection for the character Elizabeth Bennet · Letter to Cassandra Austen, 29 January 1813

Jane Austen

“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”

A dry observation on sociability, affection and personal taste · Letter to Cassandra Austen, 24 December 1798

Jane Austen

“Next week I shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend.”

Mocking the disproportionate importance society can give to fashion · Letter to Cassandra Austen, 27 October 1798

Jane Austen

“What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps one in a continual state of inelegance.”

Turning everyday discomfort into an elegant piece of self-mockery · Letter to Cassandra Austen, 18 September 1796

Humour
Life

Jane Austen

“I am very much flattered by your commendation of my last letter, for I write only for fame, and without any view to pecuniary emolument.”

A characteristically playful claim of literary ambition · Letter to Cassandra Austen, 16 January 1796

Jane Austen

“You refer to the last thing excavated on classic soil, my own torso. It proves not to be an antique at all, but a work of a New England sculptor who was wrecked in a dory off the Peloponnesian Coast.”

A wry, self-deprecating picture of his divided classical, European and New England identity · Letter to Henry Adams, 1903

Trumbull Stickney

“These cats are a very mysterious kind of folk. There is always more passing in their minds than we are aware of.”

A playful acknowledgement of the mystery of animal consciousness · Conversation at Abbotsford, recalled by Washington Irving

Sir Walter Scott

“I half grieve to take up my pen, and doubt if it is worth while to record such an infinite quantity of nothing, but hang it! I hate to be beat, so here goes for better behaviour.”

Turning self-doubt into renewed determination to continue · Journal, January 1829

Sir Walter Scott

“I always laugh when I hear people say, Do one thing at once. I have done a dozen things at once all my life.”

Describing his lifelong habit of working on several things at once · Journal, 7 December 1827

Sir Walter Scott

“But never a being, from my infancy upwards, hated task-work as I hate it; and yet I have done a great deal in my day.”

A humorous confession about achievement despite resistance to routine · Journal, 1 December 1825

Sir Walter Scott

“Advice generally does require some very powerful argument to be taken.”

A dry observation on humanity's reluctance to follow advice · Landoniana

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“We enjoy no pleasure so much as we do tormenting ourselves.”

Dryly observing humanity's attraction to self-created anxieties · Essay, A Calendar of the London Seasons

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“A London day requires to be well aired before it is ventured into.”

A characteristically playful observation on London life · Essay, A Calendar of the London Seasons

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“A preface is a species of literary luxury, where an author, like a lover, is privileged to be egotistical.”

Wryly acknowledging the author's temptation to talk about herself · Preface, Romance and Reality

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“I don't think people ought to like me, on the whole, but when they do, aint I glad?”

Combining self-doubt with an unaffected delight in being loved · Journal, 1 January 1842

Elizabeth Prentiss

“I do love to carry puddings to good old grannies.”

A playful glimpse of her early delight in practical acts of kindness · Journal, December 1841

Elizabeth Prentiss

“I knew anybody could go to camp in the sunshine.”

Finding humour and adventure in setting out despite unpromising circumstances · Essay, I Go to Camp, 1934

Gwendolyn B. Bennett

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Topic: Humour