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Evelina quotes
13 quotes from Evelina by Frances Burney. Source: Project Gutenberg e-text #6053 (public domain in the USA), the text this site’s reader shows. Each quote is copied exactly from that text and links to its passage in the reader; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against the reader’s text.
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.
"why, he's a poet, you know, so he may live upon learning."
— Spoken by a character · XLII. EVELINA TO THE REV. MR. VILLARS Holborn, June 9
You could not see and know her, and remain unmoved by those sensations of affection which belong to so near and tender a relationship.
Why, really, Ma'am, as to your being a little out of sorts, I must own I can't wonder at it; for, to be sure, marriage is all in all with the ladies; but with us gentlemen it's quite another thing!
— Spoken by a character · L. EVELINA TO THE REV. MR. VILLARS. Holborn, June 27th