Frances Burney - Evelina (1778)

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I cannot sleep — great joy is as restless as sorrow.

Frances Burney
To despise riches, may, indeed, be philosophic, but to dispense them worthily, must surely be more beneficial to mankind.

Frances Burney
The mind is but too naturally prone to pleasure, but too easily yielded to dissipation.

Frances Burney
I am ashamed of confessing that I have nothing to confess.

Frances Burney
Generosity without delicacy, like wit without judgment, generally gives as much pain as pleasure.

Frances Burney
Never shall I recollect the occasion he gave me of displeasure, without feeling it renewed.

Frances Burney
'No, Madam,' cried I, '—only—only I did not know that gentleman,—and so,—and so I thought—I intended—I—'
Overpowered by all that had passed, I had not strength to make my mortifying explanation; — my spirits quite failed me, and I burst into tears.

Frances Burney
'Do you come to the play without knowing what it is?' 'O yes, Sir, yes, very frequently; I have no time to read play-bills; one merely comes to meet one's friends, and show that one's alive.'

Frances Burney
Such is the effect of true politeness, that it banishes all restraint and embarrassment.

Frances Burney
To be sure, marriage is all in all with the ladies; but with us gentlemen it's quite another thing!

Frances Burney
I wish the opera was every night. It is, of all entertainments, the sweetest and most delightful. Some of the songs seemed to melt my very soul.

Frances Burney
Nothing is so delicate as the reputation of a woman; it is at once the most beautiful and most brittle of all human things.

Frances Burney
When young people are too rigidly sequestered from [the world], their lively and romantic imaginations paint it to them as a paradise of which they have been beguiled; but when they are shown it properly, and in due time, they see it such as it really is, equally shared by pain and pleasure, hope and disappointment.

Frances Burney
There's no nation under the sun can beat the English for ill-politeness: for my part, I hate the very sight of them; and so I shall only just visit a person of quality or two of my particular acquaintance, and then I shall go back again to France.

Frances Burney
I am too inexperienced and ignorant to conduct myself with propriety in this town, where every thing is new to me, and many things are unaccountable and perplexing.

Frances Burney
Don't be angry with the gentleman for thinking, whatever be the cause, for I assure you he makes no common practice of offending in that way.

Frances Burney
I'd do it as soon as say Jack Robinson.

Frances Burney
Tired, ashamed, and mortified, I begged to sit down till we returned home, which I did soon after. Lord Orville did me the honour to hand me to the coach, talking all the way of the honour I had done him! O these fashionable people!

Frances Burney
The lifeless symmetry of architecture, however beautiful the design and proportion, no man would be so mad as to put in competition with the animated charms of nature.

Frances Burney
Far from having taken any positive step, I have not yet even fommed any resolution.

Frances Burney
Credulity is the sister of innocence...

Frances Burney
It has been long and justly remarked, that folly has ever sought alliance with beauty.

Frances Burney
He said, 'Madam—may I presume?'—and stopped, offering to take my hand. I... could scarce forbear laughing. 'Allow me, Madam,' continuing he, affectedly breaking off every half moment, 'the honour and happiness... the happiness and honor...'

Frances Burney
Imagination took the reins, and reason, slow-paced, though sure-footed, was unequal to a race with so eccentric and flighty a companion.

Frances Burney
Falsehood is not more unjustifiable than unsafe.

Frances Burney
Unused to the situations in which I find myself, and embarrassed by the slightest difficulties, I seldom discover, till too late, how I ought to act.

Frances Burney
I'd rather be done any thing to than laughed at, for, to my mind, it's one or other the disagreeablest thing in the world.

Frances Burney
A private ball this was called... but Lord! my dear Sir, I believe I saw half the world!

Frances Burney
How little has situation to do with happiness!

Frances Burney
I looked about for some of my acquaintance, but in vain, for I saw not one person that I knew, which is very odd, for all the world seemed there.

Frances Burney