Victoria's Favorite Emma Quotes

I know this is a lot, but I even narrowed down my original list of favorites to these 10...Emma is one of my favorite Austen novels!

“‘…and, perhaps, no man can be a good judge of the comfort a woman feels in the society of one of her own sex.’” (Chapter 5, Volume 1)

[Mr. Knightly to Emma] “‘Men of sense, whatever you may choose to say, do not want silly wives.’” (Chapter 8, Volume 1)

[Mr. Woodhouse to Emma] “‘Well, I cannot understand it.’ ‘That is the case with us all, papa. One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.’” (Chapter 9, Volume 1)

[Emma about Harriet] “She had talked her into love; but alas! she was not so easily to be talked out of it.” (Chapter 4, Volume 2/Chapter 22)

“Harriet was one of those, who, having once begun, would be always in love.” (Chapter 4, Volume 2/Chapter 22)

[Emma] “…and, as she sat drawing or working, forming a thousand amusing schemes for the progress and close of their attachment, fancying interesting dialogues, and inventing elegant letters; the conclusion of every imaginary declaration on his side was that she refused him.” (Chapter 13, Volume 2/Chapter 31)

[Thought by Emma concerning her attachment to Frank Churchill] “‘I shall do very well again after a little while – and then, it will be a good thing over; for they say everybody is in love once in their lives, and I shall have been let off easily.’” (Chapter 13, Volume 2/Chapter 31)

[after Mrs. Elton persists in giving pathetic excuses on why she fears she will not practice faithfully now that she is a married woman] “Emma, finding her so determined upon neglecting her music, had nothing more to say…” (Chapter 14, Volume 2/Chapter 32)

“Such an adventure as this – a fine young man and a lovely young woman thrown together in such a way – could hardly fail of suggesting certain ideas to the coldest heart and the steadiest brain. So Emma though, at least. Could a linguist, could a grammarian, could even a mathematician have seen what she did, have witnessed their appearance together, and heard their history of it, without feeling that circumstances had been at work to make them peculiarly interesting to each other? How much more must an imaginist, like herself, be on fire with speculation and foresight?” (Chapter 3, Volume 3/Chapter 39)

“But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.” (Chapter 19, Volume 3/Chapter 55)

-Victoria