Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. — It is not fair. — He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of other people’s mouths. — I do not like him, and do not mean to like Waverley if I can help it — but fear I must.

I never saw quite so wretched an example of what a sea-faring life can do: but to a degree, I know it is the same with them all; they are all knocked about, and exposed to every climate, and every weather, till they are not fit to be seen. It is a pity they are not knocked on the head at once, before they reach Admiral Baldwin's age.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife

Envy is for people who don’t have the self-esteem to be jealous.

What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant?

I think I may boast myself to be, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress.