Date: 1778, 1779

"Yet, Madam, so hard is it to root from the mind its favourite principles, or prejudices, call them which you please, that I lingered another week ere I had the resolution to send away a letter which I regarded as the death of my independence."

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

Date: 1778, 1779

"Stung to the soul, I bid them have but a day's patience, and flung from them, in a state of mind too terrible for description."

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

Date: 1778, 1779

"Yet, Oh! how violent was the struggle which tore my conflicting soul, ere I could persuade myself to profit by the benevolence which you were so evidently disposed to exert in my favour!"

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

Date: 1778, 1779

"Lord Orville, with an air of gravity that wounded my very soul, then wished me good night."

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

Date: 1778, 1779

"The very idea was a dagger to my heart!"

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

Date: 1778, 1779

"Perhaps had I first seen you, in your kind and sympathising bosom I might have ventured to have reposed every secret of my soul; and then--but let me pursue my journal."

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

Date: 1778, 1779

"I would fain encourage more chearful thoughts, fain drive from my mind the melancholy that has taken possession of it."

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

Date: 1778, 1779

"For oh, if this weak heart of mine had been penetrated with too deep an impression of his merit,--my peace and happiness had been lost for ever!"

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

Date: 1778, 1779

"Once, indeed, I thought there existed another,--who, when time had wintered o'er his locks, would have shone forth among his fellow-creatures, with the same brightness of worth which dignifies my honoured Mr. Villars; a brightness, how superior in value to that which results from mere quickness ...

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

Date: 1778, 1779

"The first fortnight that I passed here, was so quiet, so serene, that it gave me reason to expect a settled calm during my stay; but if I may now judge of the time to come, by the present state of my mind, the calm will be succeeded by a storm, of which I dread the violence!"

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