Screen Two (TV Series)

Persuasion (1995)

Amanda Root: Anne Elliot

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Quotes 

• Captain Harvile : Poor Phoebe, she would not have forgotten him so soon. It was not in her nature.

  Anne Elliot : It would not be in the nature of any woman who truly loved.

  Captain Harvile : Do you claim that for your sex?

  Anne Elliot : We do not forget you as soon as you forget us. We cannot help ourselves. We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us. You always have business of some sort or other to take you back into the world.

  Captain Harvile : I won't allow it to be any more man's nature than women's to be inconstant or to forget those they love or have loved. I believe the reverse. I believe... Let me just observe that all histories are against you, all stories, prose, and verse. I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which did not have something to say on women's fickleness.

  Anne Elliot : But they were all written by men.

• Anne Elliot : If I may, so long as the woman you love lives, and lives for you, all the privilege I claim for my own sex, and it is not a very enviable one - you need not covet it, is that of loving longest when all hope is gone.

• Anne Elliot : We do not forget you, so soon as you forget us.

• Anne : Oh, why is the whole town suffering from this dreadful misapprehension that I shall marry him!

• Captain Benwick : [Anne and Benwick are discussing poetry and he asks her which she prefers of two poems by Sir Walter Scott. Anne answers by quoting a line from the second poem. They then alternately recite the next few lines]  Tell me, do you prefer "Marmion" or "The Lady of the Lake?"

  Anne : "Like the dew on the mountain / Like the foam on the river /"

  Captain Benwick : "Like the bubble on the fountain / Thou art gone /"

  Anne : "and forever!"

• Mr Elliot : Have you thought any more about my offer?

  Anne : What offer was that?

  Mr Elliot : My offer to flatter and adore you all the days of your life.

  Anne : I haven't had a moment, Mr Elliot, to turn my mind to it.

• Anne Elliot : Are you here for the concert?

  Captain Wentworth : No, I am here for a lecture on navigation. Am I in the wrong place?

• Sir Walter Elliot : Who is this - Admiral Croft?

  Mr. Shepherd : I met with him at the quarter sessions in Taunton. He's a native of Somersetshire who acquired a fortune in the war and wishes to return here.

  Sir Walter Elliot : Yes, but who is he?

  Anne Elliot : He is rear admiral of the white. He was in the Trafalgar action and has been in the East Indies since. He has been stationed there, I believe, several years.

  Sir Walter Elliot : Then, I take it, his face has both the color and texture of this macaroon.

• Anne Elliot : You presume to know me very well, Mr Elliot.

  Mr. Elliot : In my heart I know you intimately.

• Anne Elliot : Lady Russell, I have never said this...

  Lady Russell : Do not talk of it. You shall not talk of it.

  Anne Elliot : I do not blame you. Nor do I blame myself for having been guided by you. But, I am now persuaded that in spite of the disapproval at home and the anxiety attending his prospects that I - I should have been happier, had I...

  Lady Russell : You were nineteen, Anne. Nineteen - to involve yourself with a man who had nothing but himself to recommend him. The spirit of brilliance, to be sure, but no fortune, no connections. It was entirely prudent of you to reject him.

• Anne Elliot : Nursing does not belong to a man, Mary. It is not his province.

• Anne Elliot : You ought, perhaps, to include a larger allowance of prose in your daily study. Too much poetry may be - unsafe.

• James Benwick : You cannot know the depth of my despair. Phoebe would have married me before I went to sea, but I told her - I told her we should wait for money. Money!

  Anne Elliot : Come, now, Captain Benwick. Come, now. You will rally again. You *must*.

  James Benwick : You have no conception of what I have lost.

  Anne Elliot : Yes, I have.

• Anne Elliot : But I so dislike Bath.

  Lady Russell : Only because you associate it with the passing of your dear mother.

• Mary Musgrove : Anne, why could you not have come sooner?

  Anne Elliot : My dear Mary, I really have had so much to do.

  Mary Musgrove : Do? What can you possibly have had to do?

  Anne Elliot : A great many things I assure you.

  Mary Musgrove : Well. Dear me.

• Anne Elliot : But their minds are so dissimilar.

• Sir Walter Elliot : Your looks are greatly improved, Anne. You're less thin in your person, and your cheeks and complexion is fresher. What are you using? Gowland's Lotion?

  Anne Elliot : No. Nothing.

  Sir Walter Elliot : I recommend the constant use of Gowland's during Spring months. Mrs Clay is using it and you see what it's done for her! Quite - carried away her freckles.

• Anne Elliot : My instinct tells me, he is charming and clever but I have seen no burst of feeling, warmth of fury or delight

• Mrs. Croft : We are here to improve the Admiral's health.

  Anne Elliot : What is the problem?

  Admiral Croft : Oh, dry land, my dear. Dry land! It appears it does not agree with me legs.

• Anne Elliot : He holds my father, he says, in high esteem.

  Lady Russell : That's perfectly natural that now he is older. Mr Elliot should begin to appreciate the value of blood connection.

• William Elliot : Good company is always worth seeking. They may be nothing in themselves, but, they will collect good company around them.

  Anne Elliot : My idea of good company, Mr Elliot, is the fellowship of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation and a liberality of ideas. That's what I call good company.

  William Elliot : That is not good company. That is the best. Good company requires only birth, education and manners. And with regard to education, it is not very particular.

• Anne Elliot : You presume to know me very well, Mr Elliot.

  William Elliot : In my heart, I know you - intimately.

• Captain Frederick Wentworth : I haven't seen you since that wretched day at Lyme. I'm afraid you must have suffered somewhat from the shock. The more so for not overpowering you at the time.

  Anne Elliot : I do not think I was in danger from suffering from not being overpowered, thank you, Captain.

• Anne Elliot : The next song is very beautiful. It's a very beautiful love song. Is that not worth your staying for?

  Captain Frederick Wentworth : No, it is not worth my staying for.

• Captain Harville : Poor phoebe. She would not have forgotten him so soon. It was not in her nature.

  Anne Elliot : It would not be in the nature of any woman who truly loved.

  Captain Harville : Do you claim that for your sex?

  Anne Elliot : We do not forget you - as soon as you forget us. We cannot help ourselves. We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us. You always have business of some sort or other to take you back into the world.

  Captain Harville : I wouldn't allow it to be any more man's nature than women's to be inconstant, or to forget those they love or have loved. I believe the reverse.

• Captain Harville : Let me just observe that all histories are against you. All stories, prose and verse. I don't think I ever opened a book in where life which did not have something to say on women's fickleness.

  Anne Elliot : But they were written by men.

• Anne Elliot : I believe you capable of everything great and good. So long as, if I may, so long as the woman you love lives - and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex - and it is not very enviable one, you need not covet it - is that of loving longest when all hope is gone.