Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how.

This line occurs in Jane Austen’s novel *Pride and Prejudice* (1813), during a family conversation in which Mary Bennet—bookish, moralizing, and eager to display her “improvement”—tries to contribute in a way that will sound wise. Austen often places Mary in social scenes where her desire to appear profound outstrips her tact and genuine insight, especially beside the more socially adept (or more impulsive) members of the Bennet family. The narrator’s dry aside captures Mary’s habitual predicament: she feels obliged to offer a weighty remark, yet cannot find one that fits the moment.

The line is a dry, character-revealing piece of Austenian irony: Mary has the social ambition to appear wise and improving, but lacks the tact, imagination, or genuine insight to contribute meaningfully. Austen often uses such moments to expose the gap between a character’s self-image and their actual capacities, especially in polite conversation where “sense” is both a moral and social currency. The humor comes from the narrator’s cool understatement—Mary’s desire to be “very sensible” is itself sensible, yet her inability to find words suggests that her seriousness is performative rather than grounded in understanding.