One of my favorite things about Jane Austen is that she knew the real fear wasn’t running into some terrifying Frenchman or finding your lover’s wife in the attic…it was having to spend time with someone who is slighter cooler than you are, or playing piano in front of a critical audience, or thinking a picnic will be the perfect time for your jokes but then it isn’t
If courage isn’t the absence of fear but doing the right thing regardless of it, maybe confidence isn’t the absence of insecurity but knowing you have real worth despite it
this is beautiful
By this same token, maybe goodness isn’t the absence of bad thoughts or impulses, but the conscious choice to behave according to your moral ideals in spite of them.
He observed to her, at a moment when the others were talking together, and in a tone which had something of real regret, that it ‘was a very long time since he had had the pleasure of seeing her’ and, before she could reply, he added, ‘It is above eight months. We have not met since the 26th of November, when we were all dancing together at Netherfield.’
Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright and Danai Gurira on the cover for the latest issue of ELLE Magazine November Issue 2022, Photographed by Shaniqwa Jarvis.
