Amanda

“I do suspect that he is not really necessary to my happiness.”
― Jane Austen, Emma

“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste it's fragrance on the desert air.”
― Jane Austen, Emma

“But if I've learned anything, it is that goodness prevails, not in the absence of reasons to despair, but in spite of them. If we wait for clean heroes and clear choices and evidence on our side to act, we will wait forever, and my radio conversations teach me that people who bring light into the world wrench it out of darkness, and contend openly with darkness all of their days. [...] They were flawed human beings, who wrestled with demons in themselves as in the world outside. For me, their goodness is more interesting, more genuinely inspiring because of that reality. The spiritual geniuses of the ages and of the everyday simply don't let despair have the last word, nor do they close their eyes to its pictures or deny the enormity of its facts. They say, "Yes, and …," and they wake up the next day, and the day after that, to live accordingly.”
― Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith

“A single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else.”
― Jane Austen, Emma