If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.
Mr Knightley says this to Emma in the garden at Hartfield, when he starts to propose and then stumbles. Austen gives the novel’s most direct declaration to a character who normally speaks with composure, which is why the plain, halting wording lands.
You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.
You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.
If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, / Awake for ever in a sweet unrest.
Come live with me and be my love, / And we will all the pleasures prove.
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings.