FAVE QUOTES: A "colorful" discussion with Austen authors!

We've got a rather lengthy, rather awesome colorful discussion tomorrow, so today's is going to be short and sweet!
Make sure you check out the rest of the discussions here:

Bad Boys | Mean Girls | Character Cross-Overs | Doomed 'Ships | and more to come!

I asked:

If you had to choose, what would be your favorite Jane quote of all time?

Answers from:
Alyssa Goodnight in orange
Jenni James in green 
Laurie Viera Rigler in dark blue
Talia Vance in purple
and ME in pink 
Prepare yourselves for a another very...colorful conversation. ;P

*Please note, I've taken some minor liberties for the sake of flow... 
ME: Alright, ladies, I know this one is damn near impossible, but...favorite quote?
JENNI: How do you choose just one, honestly?! I don’t think it’s possible--at least in my case. Here are a few that I love, for varying reasons. :)

“My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.” Persuasion

“It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are they the result of previous study?” Pride and Prejudice

“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.” Pride and Prejudice

“Oh! do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.” Mansfield Park/Mansfield Ranch (Jenni's upcoming novel)

ME: I knew I should have said quoteS!

TALIA: "I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."
Le sigh.

ME: Yes!

LAURIE: My favorite quote is spoken by Fanny Price (of Mansfield Park), the one Austen heroine whom I really could not like at first. Eventually I came to admire her strong moral center, her ability to withstand pressure from everyone around her. Though I still don't find Fanny's personality particularly exciting, her words in this case have a flawless truth to them that I cherish:

"We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be."

ALYSSA: “Better be without sense than misapply it as you do.” Emma

ME:  Aww, poor Emma...
Alright, I know this question was cruel, because it's SO HARD to choose, but I think I'm going to avoid any classics (like The Letter, or any proposals, etc)... I've always loved this little interchange with Darcy and Lizzie:

"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess," said Darcy, "of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done."
"My fingers," said Elizabeth, "do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women's do. They have not the same force or rapidity, and do not produce the same expression. But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault -- because I would not take the trouble of practising. It is not that I do not believe my fingers as capable as any other woman's of superior execution."
Darcy smiled and said, "You are perfectly right. You have employed your time much better. No one admitted to the privilege of hearing you can think anything wanting. We neither of us perform to strangers."

This part gives me giddy little butterflies every time, and I read it over and over be for moving on...
I also have a soft spot for Mr Bennet's  

"From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do."

There's just something about having someone who knows you so well and is so in your corner that they would back you up in something like this (where most people of the time would have vehemently disagreed and considered Lizzie's refusal shocking and selfish). And then to do so in such a way that sort of diffuses the situation - I've always loved Mr Bennet, even for all his faults, and I think this line cemented it.

So, my Janeites - what are your favorite quotes?

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