Vanity Was The Beginning And The End

I Could Not Sit Seriously Down To Write A Serious Romance Under Any Other Motive Than To Save My Life, & If It Were Indispensable For Me To Keep It Up & Never Relax Into Laughing At Myself Or Other People, I Am Sure I Should Be Hung Before I Had Finished The First Chapter. No - I Must Keep My Own Style & Go On In My Own Way; And Though I May Never Succeed Again In That, I Am Convinced That I Should Totally Fail In Any Other.

If I Am Wrong, I Am Doing What I Believe To The Right.

Walter Scott Has No Business To Write Novels, Especially Good Ones. He Has Fame And Profit Enough As A Poet, And Should Not Be Taking The Bread Out Of Other People's Mouths.

I Know So Many Who Have Married In The Full Expectation And Confidence Of Some One Particular Advantage In The Connection, Or Accomplishment, Or Good Quality In The Person, Who Have Found Themselves Entirely Deceived, And Been Obliged To Put Up With Exactly The Reverse. What Is This But A Take In?

And Pictures Of Perfection, As You Know, Make Me Sick And Wicked.