All those things should be allowed for in youth and high spirits.

What one means one day, you know, one may not mean the next.

Circumstances change, opinions alter." "But my opinion of your brother never did alter; it was always the same.
You are describing what never happened." "My dearest Catherine," continued the other without at all listening to her, "I would not for all the world be the means of hurrying you into an engagement before you knew what you were about.

I do not think anything would justify me in wishing you to sacrifice all your happiness merely to oblige my brother, because he is my brother, and who perhaps after all, you know, might be just as happy without you, for people seldom know what they would be at, young men especially, they are so amazingly changeable and inconstant.

What I say is, why should a brother's happiness be dearer to me than a friend's?
You know I carry my notions of friendship pretty high.