Maria Edgeworth

The human heart, at whatever age, opens only to the heart that opens in return.

— Maria Edgeworth

It is a custom in Ireland, among shoemakers, if they intoxicate themselves on Sunday, to do no work on Monday; and this they call making a Saint Monday or keeping Saint Crispin's day. Many here adopted this good custom from the example of the shoemakers.

— Maria Edgeworth

Timid brides, you have, probably, hitherto been addressed as angels. Prepare for the time when you shall again become mortal.

— Maria Edgeworth

Reconciliations are the cement of friendship. Therefore friends should quarrel to strengthen their attachment, and offend each other for the pleasure of being reconciled.

— Maria Edgeworth

… sometimes the very faults of parents produce a tendency to opposite virtues in their children.

— Maria Edgeworth

Those who have lived in a house with spoiled children must have a lively recollection of the degree of torment they can inflict upon all who are within sight or hearing.

— Maria Edgeworth

Children were pretty things at three years old; but began to be great plagues at six, and were quite intolerable at ten.

— Maria Edgeworth

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, / All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.

— Maria Edgeworth

I’ve a great fancy to see my own funeral afore I die.

— Maria Edgeworth

Those who are animated by hope can perform what would seem impossibilities to those who are under the depressing influence of fear.

— Maria Edgeworth

Business was his aversion; pleasure was his business.

— Maria Edgeworth

“Pleasing for a moment,” said Helen, smiling, “is of some consequence; for, if we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves, you know.”

— Maria Edgeworth

His morality is not in purple patches, ostentatiously obtrusive, but woven in through the very texture of the stuff.

— Maria Edgeworth

How success changes the opinion of men!

— Maria Edgeworth