Fanny Burney Quotes
Travelling is the ruin of all happiness. There's no looking at a building here after seeing Italy.
But if the young are never tired of erring in conduct, neither are the older in erring of judgment.
I wish the opera was every night. It is, of all entertainments, the sweetest and most delightful. Some of the songs seemed to melt my very soul.
A youthful mind is seldom totally free from ambition; to curb that, is the first step to contentment, since to diminish expectation is to increase enjoyment.
Nothing is so delicate as the reputation of a woman; it is at once the most beautiful and most brittle of all human things.
I am too inexperienced and ignorant to conduct myself with propriety in this town, where every thing is new to me, and many things are unaccountable and perplexing.
To despise riches, may, indeed, be philosophic, but to dispense them worthily, must surely be more beneficial to mankind.
Generosity without delicacy, like wit without judgment, generally gives as much pain as pleasure.
Unused to the situations in which I find myself, and embarassed by the slightest difficulties, I seldom discover, till too late, how I ought to act.
People who live together naturally catch the looks and air of one another and without having one feature alike, they contract a something in the whole countenance which strikes one as a resemblance
the mind naturally accommodates itself, even to the most ridiculous improprieties, if they occur frequently.
such is the effect of true politeness, that it banishes all restraint and embarassment.
To save the mind from preying inwardly upon itself, it must be encouraged to some outward pursuit.
We continually say things to support an opinion, which we have given, that in reality we don't above half mean.
I'd rather be done any thing to than laughed at, for, to my mind, it's one or other the disagreeablest thing in the world.
Well of all things in the world, I don't suppose anything can be so dreadful as a public wedding--my stars!--I should never be able to support it!
To a heart formed for friendship and affection the charms of solitude are very short-lived.
Wealth per se I never too much valued, and my acquaintance with its possessors has by no means increased my veneration for it.
to be sure, marriage is all in all with the ladies; but with us gentlemen it's quite another thing!
I looked about for some of my acquaintance, but in vain, for I saw not one person that I knew, which is very odd, for all the world seemed there.
There si nothing upon the face of the earth so insipid as a medium. Give me love or hate! A friend that will go to jail for me, or an enemy that will run me through the body!
O, we all acknowledge our faults, now; 'tis the mode of the day: but the acknowledgment passes for current payment; and therefore we never amend them.
Money is the source of the greatest vice, and that nation which is most rich, is most wicked.
Imagination took the reins, and reason, slow-paced, though sure-footed, was unequal to a race with so eccentric and flighty a companion.
an old woman ... is a person who has no sense of decency; if once she takes to living, the devil himself can't get rid of her.
... it's vastly more irksome to give up one's own way, than to hear a few impertinent remarks.
don't be angry with the gentleman for thinking, whatever be the cause, for I assure you he makes no common practice of offending in that way.
There is something in age that ever, even in its own despite, must be venerable, must create respect and to have it ill treated, is to me worse, more cruel and wicked than anything on earth
Never shall I recollect the occasion he gave me of displeasure, without feeling it renewed.
