It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.

More from Mansfield Park

• An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself. Her cares are over, and she feels that she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion. All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done.
• But Shakespeare one gets acquainted with without knowing how. It is a part of an Englishman’s constitution.
• Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody.
• Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.
• There are certainly not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.
• There is scarcely a young lady in the united kingdoms, who would not rather put up with the misfortune of being sought by a clever, agreeable man, than have him driven away by the vulgarity of her nearest relations.