A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.
 Jane Austen, Emma (1815). copy citation

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Author Jane Austen
Source Emma
Topic mind ease
Date 1815
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/158/158-h/158-h.htm

Context

“and when her eyes fell only on the butcher with his tray, a tidy old woman travelling homewards from shop with her full basket, two curs quarrelling over a dirty bone, and a string of dawdling children round the baker's little bow-window eyeing the gingerbread, she knew she had no reason to complain, and was amused enough; quite enough still to stand at the door. A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer. She looked down the Randalls road. The scene enlarged; two persons appeared; Mrs. Weston and her son-in-law; they were walking into Highbury;—to Hartfield of course. They were stopping, however, in the first place at Mrs.” source