The Bennet Family at Home illustrated by Hugh Thomson, 1894 from Wikimedia Commons

When I was looking at the Fixed Mindset/Growth Mindset infograph on the DLMOOC site yesterday a conversation between Lizzy Bennet and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice popped into my head:

“I certainly have not the talent which some people possess,” said Darcy, “of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done.”

“My fingers,” said Elizabeth, “do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women’s do. They have not the same force or rapidity, and do not produce the same expression. But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault- because I would not take the trouble of practising…(Pride and Prejudice, 1813, chapter 31)

Ms Austen you were centuries ahead of your time!