Frances Burney

"The future belongs to those who believe in its possibilities."

"To sacrifice for love is to understand its true measure."

"Wisdom is knowing when to speak and when to be silent."

"The heart's deepest wishes often align with life's greatest purposes."

"The pen is the instrument of those who manage the world."

"I am not tempted by ambition; I am content with obscurity and books."

"We are too apt to think that the evils we suffer are peculiar to ourselves."

"A woman may be made a fool of if she is not on her guard against the designs of the other sex."

"There is nothing so much the object of my study as human nature."

"I would far rather be myself and stand or fall by my own merits than by the countenance of any power."

"The whole of life is nothing but a perpetual alteration of matters."

"Honesty is the best policy, yet few live by it."

"I have received a blow that has staggered me very much."

"To be loved is the greatest blessing life can offer."

"My opinion is, that nothing is so necessary for a young woman as the knowledge of herself."

"The mind is the true nobility of man."

"I confess I have a horror of people who are not amused by anything."

"Women are the only real repositories of the art of pleasing."

"Without some goal and some effort to reach it, no one can live satisfactorily."

"I would rather lose my life than my honour."

"The greatest evil that can befall us is indifference to our obligations."

"There is nothing I so much wish as to be received by your friendship."

"Misery is a communicable disease."

"I am not fond of the idea of residing all the year in one spot."

"The heart is ever the dupe of the understanding."

"Surely nothing is so necessary for a man as the consciousness of his own insufficiency."

"I believe the greatest happiness is to be of use to others."

"The power of imagination creates everything we can conceive of."

"I am not fond of those very long walks which are so fashionable at present."

"There is nothing more dreadful to a woman of sense than to be mixed up in affairs of intrigue."