Quotes · verified word for word in the text
Frances Burney quotes
10 quotes from 1 of Frances Burney’s books on this site, book by book. Each quote is copied exactly from the book’s text in this site’s reader (the Project Gutenberg e-text named under each book) and links to its passage; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against that text. Quotes we could not find in a book we host are not listed.
Evelina
Remember, my dear Evelina, nothing is so delicate as the reputation of a woman; it is at once the most beautiful and most brittle of all human things.
It seldom happens that a man, though extolled as a saint, is really without blemish; or that another, though reviled as a devil, is really without humanity.
She will not, I know, propose any thing to you which she thinks wrong herself; but you must learn not only to judge but to act for yourself; if any schemes are started, any engagements made, which your understanding represents to you as improper, exert yourself resolutely in avoiding them; and do not, by a too passive facility, risk the censure of the world, or your own future regret.
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.
— Lord Orville · XX. EVELINA IN CONTINUATION
never shall I recollect the occasion he gave me of displeasure, without feeling it renewed.
"it is sometimes dangerous to make requests to men who are too desirous of receiving them."
— Spoken by a character · Letter XXXIV
I am now not merely easy, but even gay in his presence: such is the effect of true politeness, that it banishes all restraint and embarrassment.
How little has situation to do with happiness!
The mind is but too naturally prone to pleasure, but too easily yielded to dissipation: it has been my study to guard her against their delusions, by preparing her to expect-and to despise them.