Quotes

Mrs. Dashwood: Why so grave? You disapprove her choice?

Marianne: By no means. Edward is very amiable.

Mrs. Dashwood: Amiable? But...?

Marianne: But there is something wanting. He's too sedate. His reading last night...

Mrs. Dashwood: But Elinor has not your feelings. His reserve suits her.

Marianne: Can he love her? Can the soul really be satisfied with such polite affections? To love is to burn - to be on fire, like Juliet or Guinevere or Eloise.

Mrs. Dashwood: They made rather pathetic ends, dear.

Marianne: Pathetic? To die for love? How can you say so? What could be more glorious?

Mrs. Dashwood: I think that would be taking your romantic sensibilities a little far.

Elinor Dashwood: Margaret has always wanted to travel.

Edward Ferrars: I know. She's, eh, heading an expedition to China shortly. I am to go as her servant, but only on the understanding that I am to be very badly treated.

Elinor Dashwood: What will your duties be?

Edward Ferrars: Sword fighting, obviously, administering rum and swabbing.

Elinor Dashwood: Which of those duties will take precedence?

Edward Ferrars: Swabbing, I imagine.

Marianne: Fanny wishes to know where the key to the silver cabinet is kept.

Elinor Dashwood: Betsy has it, I think. What does Fanny want with the silver?

Marianne: One can only presume she wants to count it. What are you doing?

Elinor Dashwood: Presents for the servants. Have you seen Margaret, by the way? I'm worried about her. She's taken to hiding in the oddest places.

Marianne: Fortunate girl. At least she can escape Fanny, which is more than any of us is able.

Elinor Dashwood: You do your best. You've not said a word to her for a week.

Marianne: I have. I've said "yes" and "no".

Elinor Dashwood: Did he tell you that he loved you?

Marianne: Yes. No. Never absolutely. It was everyday implied but never declared.

Lucy: We were talking of London, ma'am, and of all its... diversions.

Mrs Jennings: I will brook no refusal, Miss Dashwood. Let us strike hands on the bargain. And if I do not have the three of you married by michaelmas, it will not be my fault.

Mrs. Dashwood: You must miss him, Elinor.

Elinor Dashwood: We are not engaged, Mamma.

Mrs. Dashwood: But he loves you, dearest, of that I am certain.

Elinor Dashwood: I am by no means assured of his regard, and even were he to feel such a preference, I think we should be foolish to assume that there would not be many obstacles to his marrying a... a woman of no rank who cannot afford to buy sugar.

Mrs. Dashwood: But Elinor, your heart must tell you...

Elinor Dashwood: In such a situation, Mamma, it is perhaps better to use one's head.

Elinor Dashwood: You talk of feeling idle and useless. Imagine how that is compounded when one has no hope and no choice of any occupation whatsoever.

Edward Ferrars: Our circumstances are therefore precisely the same.

Elinor Dashwood: Except that you will inherit your fortune. We cannot even earn ours.

Edward Ferrars: Perhaps Margaret is right.

Elinor Dashwood: Right?

Edward Ferrars: Piracy is our only option.

Mrs Jennings: [to Pigeon] Don't talk to me of coals.

Mrs Jennings: [to the parrot] Ah, there you are Pooter. Still alive I see.

Elinor Dashwood: [making painstaking conversation] How is Mrs Ferrars?

Fanny: My mother is always in excellent health, thank you. My brother Robert is in town with her this season and quite the most popular bachelor in London. He has his own barouche.

Elinor Dashwood: Oh. You have two brothers, have you not?

Fanny: Indeed yes. Edward is the elder and Mamma quite depends upon him. He's traveling up from Plymouth shortly and will break his journey here.

John Dashwood: If that is agreeable to you.

Mrs. Dashwood: My dear John, this is your home now.

Mrs. Dashwood: Surely you're not going to deny us beef as well as sugar.

Elinor Dashwood: There is nothing under 10 pence a pound, Mamma. We must economise.

Mrs. Dashwood: Do you want us to starve?

Elinor Dashwood: No. Just not to eat beef.

[a large box has arrived at Barton cottage]

Margaret: It's for us!

Mrs. Dashwood: What is it, Thomas?

Thomas: I'm not sure, ma'am, but it's right heavy.

Mrs. Dashwood: To be reduced to the condition of visitor in my own home. It is not to be borne, Elinor.

Elinor Dashwood: Consider, Mamma, we have nowhere to go.

Mrs. Dashwood: John and Fanny will be descending from London at any moment. Do you expect me to be here to welcome them? Vultures.

Margaret: He must like you very much.

Marianne: It is not just for me. It is for all of us.

Marianne: Good morning, Fanny.

Fanny: Good morning, Miss Marianne.

Marianne: How did you find the silver? Was it all genuine?

Fanny: Oh, a cottage! How charming. A little cottage is always very snug.

Marianne: I was never so grateful in all my life as I am to Mrs. Jennings. Oh, Elinor, I shall see Willoughby and you will see Edward. Are you asleep?

Elinor Dashwood: With you in the room?

Marianne: I do not believe you feel as calm as you look, Elinor. Not even you. Oh, I will never sleep tonight. And what were you and Miss Steele talking about so long?

Elinor Dashwood: Nothing of significance.

John Willoughby: Frailty, thy name is Brandon.

Marianne: There are some people who can't bear a party of pleasure.

Mrs. Dashwood: You're a very wicked pair. Colonel Brandon will be sadly missed.

John Willoughby: Why? When he is the sort of man that everyone speaks well of and no one remembers to talk to?

Marianne: Always resignation and acceptance. Always prudence and honour and duty. Elinor, where is your heart?

Elinor Dashwood: What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering. For weeks, Marianne, I've had this pressing on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature. It was forced on me by the very person whose prior claims ruined all my hope. I have endured her exultations again and again whilst knowing myself to be divided from Edward forever. Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.

Colonel Brandon: What can I do?

Elinor Dashwood: Colonel, you have done so much already...

Colonel Brandon: Give me an occupation, Miss Dashwood, or I shall run mad.

Marianne: When is a man to be safe from such wit if age and infirmity do not protect him?

Elinor Dashwood: Infirmity?

Mrs. Dashwood: If Colonel Brandon is infirm then I am at death's door.

Elinor Dashwood: It is a miracle your life has extended this far.

Marianne: Did you not hear him complain of a rheumatism in his shoulder?

Elinor Dashwood: "A slight ache" I believe was his phrase.

Marianne: "Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove. Oh no! It is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken." Willoughby. Willoughby. Willoughby.

Marianne: I'm taking you for a walk.

Margaret: No, I've been a walk.

Marianne: You need another.

Margaret: It's going to rain.

Marianne: It is NOT going to rain.

Margaret: You ALWAYS say that and then it ALWAYS does.

Charlotte Palmer: Oh, if only this rain would stop!

Mr. Palmer: If only you would stop.

Margaret: Have you really been to the East Indies, Colonel?

Colonel Brandon: I have.

Margaret: What's it like?

Sir John Middleton: Like? Hot.

Colonel Brandon: [mysteriously] The air is full of spices.

Elinor Dashwood: You have no confidence in me.

Marianne: This reproach from you. You who confide in no-one.

Elinor Dashwood: I have nothing to tell.

Marianne: Nor I. Neither of us have anything to tell. I because I conceal nothing and you because you communicate nothing.

Mrs. Dashwood: [feeling Marianne's ankle after she sprains it, Marianne being enraptured with Willoughby] Tell me if I hurt you.

Elinor: She feels no pain, mama.

[after a reading of Spenser's The Faerie Queen]

Marianne: Shall we continue tomorrow?

Colonel Brandon: No, for I must away.

Marianne: Away? Where?

Colonel Brandon: That I cannot tell you. It is a secret.

Mrs. Dashwood: [watching Brandon court Marianne] He certainly is not so dashing as Willoughby, but he has a far more pleasing countenance. There always was a something, if you remember, in Willoughby's eyes at times that I did not like.

[as Mrs. Dashwood sees off Marianne's dashing rescuer]

Marianne: [whispering] His name! His name!

Mrs. Dashwood: Oh, his name!

[runs back]

Mrs. Dashwood: Please, could you tell us to whom we are so much obliged?

Mrs Jennings: There you are, Pigeon. Have you missed me?

Pigeon: Very much, ma'am.

Mrs Jennings: Ah, you always say so and I never believe you.

Edward Ferrars: I trust I find you all well?

Marianne: Thank you, Edward, we are all very well.

Margaret: We've been enjoying very fine weather.

[Marianne nudges her]

Margaret: Well, we have.

Edward Ferrars: Well, I-I'm glad to hear it. The roads were very... dry.

Elinor Dashwood: Mama,

[deep sigh]

Elinor Dashwood: there is a painful difference between the expectation of an unpleasant event and its final certainty.

Elinor Dashwood: John and Fanny are in town. I think we shall be forced to see them.

Mrs Jennings: I don't want to hear another word about the ham bone, Pigeon. You and Cartwright must sort that out between you.

Marianne: Colonel Brandon.

[Though trying to slip out, he eases slowly back into the room, almost afraid to speak]

Marianne: Thank you.

[a fleeting look of mild gratitude crosses his face from these first sincerely kind words she's ever spoken to him]

Elinor Dashwood: Poor Willoughby. He will always regret you.

Marianne: But does it follow that, had he chosen me, he would have been content? He would have had a wife he loved, but no money, and might soon have learned to rank the demands of his pocketbook far above the demands of his heart. If his present regrets are half as painful as mine, he will suffer enough.

Elinor Dashwood: Do you compare your conduct with his?

Marianne: No, I compare it with what it ought to have been. I compare it with yours.

Charlotte Palmer: To think! We can see his insufferable house from the top of our hill. I shall ask Jackson to plant some very tall trees.

Mr. Palmer: You will do nothing of the sort.

Mrs Jennings: I think I've unearthed a secret.

Sir John Middleton: Oh, no, have you sniffled one out already, Mother? You're worse than my best pointer Flossie!

Mrs Jennings: Ah, now, do not fret, my dear. I have been told that this good weather is keeping many of our sportsmen in the country at present, but the frost will soon drive them to town. Depend on it.