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I cannot be much pleased without an appearance of truth at least of possibility I wish the history to be natural though the sentiments are refined and the characters to be probable, though their behaviour is excelling

Fanny Burney

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Fanny Burney
Cannot
Appearance
Truth
Characters
Character
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Excelling
Without
Least
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Though
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Natural
Behaviour
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Pleased
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More quotes by Fanny Burney

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Can any thing, my good Sir, be more painful to a friendly mind than a necessity of communicating disagreeable intelligence? Indeed, it is sometimes difficult to determine, whether the relater or the receiver of evil tidings is most to be pitied.
Fanny Burney
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to be sure, marriage is all in all with the ladies but with us gentlemen it's quite another thing!
Fanny Burney
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Imagination took the reins, and reason, slow-paced, though sure-footed, was unequal to a race with so eccentric and flighty a companion.
Fanny Burney
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Credulity is the sister of innocence.
Fanny Burney
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such is the effect of true politeness, that it banishes all restraint and embarassment.
Fanny Burney
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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!
Fanny Burney
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. . . men seldom risk their lives where an escape is without hope of recompense.
Fanny Burney
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In England, I was quite struck to see how forward the girls are made--a child of 10 years old, will chat and keep you company, while her parents are busy or out etc.--with the ease of a woman of 26. But then, how does this education go on?--Not at all: it absolutely stops short.
Fanny Burney
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A youthful mind is seldom totally free from ambition to curb that, is the first step to contentment, since to diminish expectation is to increase enjoyment.
Fanny Burney
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To a heart formed for friendship and affection the charms of solitude are very short-lived.
Fanny Burney
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Childhood is never troubled with foresight.
Fanny Burney
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This perpetual round of constrained civilities to persons quite indifferent to us, is the most provoking and tiresome thing in theworld, but it is unavoidable in a country town, where everybody is known.... 'Tis a most shocking and unworthy way of spending our precious irrecoverable time, to those who know not its value.
Fanny Burney
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Generosity without delicacy, like wit without judgment, generally gives as much pain as pleasure.
Fanny Burney
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the right line of conduct is the same for both sexes, though the manner in which it is pursued, may somewhat vary, and be accommodated to the strength or weakness of the different travelers.
Fanny Burney
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We relate all our afflictions more frequently than we do our pleasures.
Fanny Burney
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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.
Fanny Burney
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No man is in love when he marries. He may have loved before I have even heard he has sometimes loved after: but at the time never. There is something in the formalities of the matrimonial preparations that drive away all the little cupidons.
Fanny Burney
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A little alarm now and then keeps life from stagnation.
Fanny Burney
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The Spring is generally fertile in new acquaintances.
Fanny Burney
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To have some account of my thoughts, manners, acquaintance and actions, when the hour arrives in which time is more nimble than memory, is the reason which induces me to keep a journal: a journal in which I must confess my every thought, must open my whole heart!
Fanny Burney