Jane Austen Quote of the Week 208

I’ve been practising gratitude these days, recording about five things that I am grateful of per day. It’s a good practice to make me realise how lucky I am. Thus, for this week (well, a few minutes past midnight), I’d like to present a quote about gratitude. Taken from Pride and Prejudice Chapter 44 (Volume III, Chapter 2), set at Pemberley after the dinner with the Gardiners.

Keira Knightley as Lizzy Bennet

As for Elizabeth, her thoughts were at Pemberley this evening more than the last; and the evening, though as it passed it seemed long, was not long enough to determine her feelings towards one in that mansion; and she lay awake two whole hours endeavouring to make them out. She certainly did not hate him. No; hatred had vanished long ago, and she had almost as long been ashamed of ever feeling a dislike against him that could be so called. The respect created by the conviction of his valuable qualities, though at first unwillingly admitted, had for some time ceased to be repugnant to her feelings; and it was now heightened into somewhat of a friendlier nature by the testimony so highly in his favour, and bringing forward his disposition in so amiable a light, which yesterday had produced. But above all, above respect and esteem, there was a motive within her of good will which could not be overlooked. It was gratitude. -- Gratitude, not merely for having once loved her, but for loving her still well enough to forgive all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and all the unjust accusations accompanying her rejection. He who, she had been persuaded, would avoid her as his greatest enemy, seemed, on this accidental meeting, most eager to preserve the acquaintance, and without any indelicate display of regard, or any peculiarity of manner, where their two selves only were concerned, was soliciting the good opinion of her friends, and bent on making her known to his sister. Such a change in a man of so much pride excited not only astonishment but gratitude -- for to love, ardent love, it must be attributed; and as such, its impression on her was of a sort to be encouraged, as by no means unpleasing, though it could not be exactly defined. She respected, she esteemed, she was grateful to him; she felt a real interest in his welfare; and she only wanted to know how far she wished that welfare to depend upon herself, and how far it would be for the happiness of both that she should employ the power, which her fancy told her she still possessed, of bringing on the renewal of his addresses. [bolded sentences my own]

Gratitude can be found when we are contemplating such a big revelation as Elizabeth’s growing love to Darcy. Gratitude can also be found in simple things, such as a simple dinner with oneself or close friends, the blooming flowers in the garden, and the birds singing up in the sky.Or the simple fact of being alive. 

Have you got anything to be grateful of today, my dear friends?