Skip to content

Quote by Emily Eden

““Oh dear! how unamiable I am when I am with my uncle and aunt," thought Rachel, "thoroughly detestable I may say, and yet when I am with those girls, or little Charlie, I can be as good as gold, and so tame that that baby can lead me; I do believe evil qualities are more catching than measles.””

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 2.1 out of 5 (3 ratings)

More by Emily Eden

“What! another love story? My dear Blanche, I hope you are not going to turn into a match-maker; of all the dangerous manufactories in…

Image

“What am I to give the housemaids here? and do you object to my reading novels, if Lady Eskdale says there is no harm…

Image

“Now, my dear Mr. Douglas, don't go off on those tiresome foreign affairs. What can it signify which conquers which, or who dethrones who,…

Image

“Oh! where is Truth? am I never to find it? I can bear artifice in the frivolities and gauds of the world–it is all…

Image

I like a good murder that can't be found out. That is, of course it is very shocking, but I like to hear about…

Image

“The girls were full of pity and admiration, and affirmed that when their mother understood Rachel a little better she would like her. "My dears, I had much better like her at once, if you wish it; for if I wait till I understand her, I shall just be uncharitable for the rest of my days. I never know whether…

“Thirty morning gowns!" whispered Sarah, as they went down stairs. "The idea of a new gown every day for a month. Now I call…

Image

Why is it that fools always have the instinct to hunt out the unpleasant secrets of life, and the hardiness to mention them?

Image

“Mrs. Douglas could hardly do less than make a very great grievance of what was intended as a kindness. She hated a wedding; it was just the sort of thing that the world chose to make a fuss about, but which she thought the most uninteresting ceremony on earth. She did not see why she was to dress herself out…

“To those who are not, like Wordsworth's primrose, "dwellers on the river's brim," it may be necessary to explain that an outrigger is an apology for a boat, and, apparently, a feeble imitation of a plank–that the individual who hazards his own life in it is happily prevented, by its absurd form, from making any other person a sharer in…

“Oh, mamma!" said Eliza, "I wish you would not say that; and I wish they would ask us constantly to their house. It is very odd, that though I feel afraid of everybody all the time, there is nothing I like so much as dining there. And I am sure, mamma, it would be very good for my manner, which…

“Ever, while you live, choose the popular side in an election; that is, if you have no particular political prejudices of your own; for…

Image

Explore all 30 Emily Eden quotes