Jane Austen Quote of the Day

I take no leave of you

A slight detour from S&S today.  I've had some nightmarish customer service experiences lately (whoever invented those automated voices ought to be strung and quartered), and I'm struggling to find something to say at the end of those horrible calls.  "Thank you" hardly seems appropriate.  Who better to turn to for guidance than Ms. High & Mighty herself, Lady Catherine.

"I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased."

Lady Catherine De Bourgh, on leaving Lizzy after her surprise appearance at Longbourn
Pride & Prejudice, volume 3, chapter 14

I hardly think these great and horrible corporations would be moved by the fact that I'm dissing their mother.

Judi Dench as Lady Catherine

A good memory is unpardonable

Alas... just one more evening of P&P on Sunday. 

"You are joking, Lizzy.  This cannot be!--engaged to Mr. Darcy! No, no, you shall not deceive me.  I know it to be impossible."

"This is a wretched beginning indeed!  My sole dependence was on you; and I am sure nobody else will believe me, if you do not.  Yet, indeed, I am in earnest.  I speak nothing but the truth.  He still loves me, and we are engaged."

Jane looked at her doubtingly.  "Oh, Lizzy!  it cannot be.  I know how much you dislike him."

"You know nothing of the matter.  That is all to be forgot.  Perhaps I did not always love him so well as I do now.  But in such cases as these, a good memory is unpardonable.  This is the last time I shall ever remember it myself." 

Lizzy and Jane discussing Lizzy's engagement to Mr. Darcy
Pride & Prejudice, Volume 3, Chapter 17

Another lovely icon from the icon contest at Jane Austen Today, this one from Mandie at ATUA.

Recipe for a marriage

"'My good qualities are under your protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible; and, in return, it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing and quarrelling with you as often as may be.'"

Lizzy to Darcy, discussing their recent engagement and how their relationship will work from this point forward
Pride and Prejudice, volume 3, chapter 18

Sounds like a good plan, no?

Icon from Ms. Place at Jane Austen Today.

Your excellent judgment, cousin Elizabeth

One of our favorites from dear Mr. Collins...

"'My dear Miss Elizabeth, I have the highest opinion in the world of your excellent judgment in all matters within the scope of your understanding . . ."

Mr. Collins to Lizzy, when he insists on speaking to Mr. Darcy though they have not been introduced, and she tries to stop him
Pride & Prejudice, volume 1, chapter 18

Image from bbc.co.uk

Marrying without affection

"'Oh, Lizzy!  do anything rather than marry without affection.'"

Jane to Lizzy on her engagement to Darcy, a quote which no doubt echoes Austen's own thoughts (and sounds very much like her advice to her niece, Fanny)
Pride and Prejudice, volume 3, chapter 17

The progress of love

"'I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation.  It is too long ago.  I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.'"

Darcy, answering Lizzy's question about how he ever began to fall in love with her in the first place
Pride and Prejudice, volume 3, chapter 18

My brother was able to get my wireless network back up and running yesterday.  Whoo-hoo!

There are few people I love...

"There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well.  The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and everyday confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of either merit or sense."

Lizzy talking to her sister Jane, upon hearing of Charlotte's wedding and after a letter from Caroline Bingley, hinting at her brother's supposed indifference
Pride & Prejudice, Volume 2, Chapter 1

Oh, what a day!  Today there are few people of whom I think well.  My internet access at home is out for the day.  My new service provider cut the old one off and hasn't turned the new one on yet.  Of course, they didn't tell me they were going to do this.  So I spent like half an hour on the phone talking to five different people (including an insanely annoying animated computer thing that kept asking over and over why I needed to talk to a customer service rep -- argh!).  Every one of them needed my account information and my special secret password -- again!  Like, what, inbetween when they talked to me and they transferred me, I just handed the phone to some random individual who wanted to sabotage me by trying to get the internet working in my home???  ARRRGH! 

Lovely Jennifer Ehle icon is from the icon contest a while back at Jane Austen Today, created by Sands at the web forum A Truth Universally Acknowledged.  (Rerunning this post from a while back, so some of the comments are older.)

Poor Mary

"Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how."

Mr. Bennet tries to provoke Mary into commenting on "the forms of introduction," in the midst of all the hoopla about meeting Bingley
Pride & Prejudice, volume 1, chapter 2

Poor Mary!  I empathize...

Image ©BBC 1994 for Masterpiece™

If he possibly can

I'm running horribly late today, and last night, my Tivo hiccuped and missed recording P&P the first time around.  I was inexplicably sad, feeling like I missed watching it with the sisterhood.  If you watched--especially for the first time--would love to know what you thought.

"'He is just what a young man ought to be,' said she [Jane], 'sensible, good-humored, lively; and I never saw such happy manners!--so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!'

'He is also handsome,' replied Elizabeth, 'which a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can.  His character is thereby complete.'"

Lizzy and Jane on meeting Bingley
Pride & Prejudice, volume 1, chapter 4

A lady's imagination

Love this quote. This is actually Darcy, talking to Miss Bingley.  He tells her he's been thinking of Elizabeth's fine eyes, and she asks, "When am I to wish you joy?"  To which he replies:

"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.  I knew you would be wishing me joy."

Pride & Prejudice, volume 1, chapter 6