... and because they were fond of reading, she fancied them satirical: perhaps without exactly knowing what it was to be satirical; but that did not signify. It was censure in common use, and easily given.

Jane Austen
About This Quote

In this quotation from "Pride and Prejudice," Elizabeth is describing just how easy it is to criticize people, even when they aren’t aware of what they are being criticized for, or don’t know why they are being criticized. This is a common trait of many of us, who can’t seem to resist having a go at someone else. We’re tired of seeing our favorite people get criticized. We want to say something about their behavior or appearance, but we don’t know what to say.

At times like these, we tend to blame the person for being cruel and nasty. Some of us don’t realize that people criticize us not because they hate us, but because they care about us. A mother who sees her daughter getting into a fight with her friends might be secretly pleased to see her daughter in action and might even believe that she was right in encouraging her daughter to stand up for herself. A teenage boy who has been teased by his peers for missing out on schoolwork might assume that everyone thinks he is a loser and might be secretly pleased by the attention he gets when he makes fun of his teachers in front of his classmates or tells his friends that they look stupid when they leave the classroom with their heads down.

Source: Sense And Sensibility

Some Similar Quotes
  1. A half-read book is a half-finished love affair. - David Mitchell
  2. If one wanted to depict the whole thing graphically, every episode, with its climax, would require a three-dimensional, or, rather, no model: every experience is unrepeatable. What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open,... - Italo Calvino
  3. We shouldn't teach great books we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement. - B.F. Skinner
  4. Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live. - Gustave Flaubert
  5. People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading. - Logan Pearsall Smith
More Quotes By Jane Austen
  1. There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.
  2. A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.
  3. In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.
  4. The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!
  5. 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.
Related Topics