I See That A Man Cannot Give

When I Tell You Not To Marry Without Love, I Do Not Advise You To Marry For Love Alone: There Are Many, Many Other Things To Be Considered. Keep Both Heart And Hand In Your Own Possession, Till You See Good Reason To Part With Them; And If Such An Occasion Should Never Present Itself, Comfort Your Mind With This Reflection, That Though In Single Life Your Joys May Not Be Very Many, Your Sorrows, At Least, Will Not Be More Than You Can Bear. Marriage May Change Your Circumstances For The Better, But, In My Private Opinion, It Is Far More Likely To Produce A Contrary Result.

All True Histories Contain Instruction; Though, In Some, The Treasure May Be Hard To Find, And When Found, So Trivial In Quantity, That The Dry, Shriveled Kernel Scarcely Compensates For The Trouble Of Cracking The Nut.

But Smiles And Tears Are So Alike With Me, They Are Neither Of Them Confined To Any Particular Feelings: I Often Cry When I Am Happy, And Smile When I Am Sad.

I Still Preserve Those Relics Of Past Sufferings And Experience, Like Pillars Of Witness Set Up In Travelling Through The Valve Of Life, To Mark Particular Occurrences. The Footsteps Are Obliterated Now; The Face Of The Country May Be Changed; But The Pillar Is Still There, To Remind Me How All Things Were When It Was Reared.

[preface To Second Edition:] ... I Am Satisfied That If A Book Is A Good One, It Is So Whatever The Sex Of The Author May Be.