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.

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.
• 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.
• 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.