There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.

The passage comes in chapter 13 of the second volume of Emma. Harriet Smith cannot stop thinking of Mr Elton, the vicar Emma had wrongly encouraged her to love, who has since chosen a rich bride met in Bath. Emma urges her to show “a habit of self-command”, then adds a gentler appeal: Harriet might consider what would be kind to her friend. Harriet is overcome: “You, who have been the best friend I ever had in my life—Want gratitude to you!”

Moved, Emma reflects “afterwards to herself” that warmth and tenderness of heart “will beat all the clearness of head in the world”. She thinks of her father and her sister Isabella, loved for that very quality, and admits: “I have it not—but I know how to prize and respect it.”

It is a rare moment of humility for a heroine proud of her judgment, whose matchmaking caused this pain. Austen published Emma at the end of 1815; the line is often quoted as a simple truth about what makes people lovable.

Emma, Volume II, chapter XIII, 1815

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