Date: 1782

"He knew that the acquaintance of Cecilia was confined to a circle of which he was himself the principal ornament, that she had rejected all the proposals of marriage which had hitherto been made to her, and, as he had sedulously watched her from her earliest years, he had reason to believe that ...

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1782

"She returned, however, neither satisfied with the behaviour of her friend, nor pleased with her own situation: the sobriety of her education, as it had early instilled into her mind the pure dictates of religion, and strict principles of honour, had also taught her to regard continual dissipatio...

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1782

"A strong sense of DUTY, a fervent desire to ACT RIGHT, were the ruling characteristics of her mind: her affluence she therefore considered as a debt contracted with the poor, and her independence, as a tie upon her liberality to pay it with interest."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1782

"Cecilia, too much astonished for speech, stood for some time immoveable, revolving in her mind various conjectures upon the meaning of an exhortation so strange and so urgent."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1782

"Cecilia was wholly unable to devise any answer to these effusions of contempt and anger; and therefore his harangue lasted without interruption, till he had exhausted all his subjects of complaint, and emptied his mind of ill-will."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1782

"'Hast thou so much heart?' cried he, with emotion, "and has fortune, though it has cursed thee with the temptation of prosperity, not yet rooted from thy mind its native benevolence?"

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1782

"At least it was worth trying; for though wrath slowly kindled or long nourished is sullen and intractable, the sudden anger that has not had time to impress the mind with a deep sense of injury, will, when gently managed, be sometimes appeased with the same quickness it is excited."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1782

"You are much deceived; you have been reading your own mind, and thought you had read his."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1782

"'Put me, if you please, to some trial!' cried Cecilia, with the virtuous courage of a self-acquitting conscience."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1782

"I meant to have repeated the lesson, to have tuned your whole heart to compassion, and to have taught you the sad duties of sympathising humanity."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)