Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure…
Near the romantic climax, Austen widens the lens to a philosophy of speech. People shade, omit, mistake; yet feelings can still be right even when conduct is wrong. The sentence justifies how imperfect confessions can still reveal the heart. It also gently excuses the misunderstandings that drove the plot. Stylistically, the measured cadence carries the calm of a final lesson. For Emma and Knightley, the line blesses their irregular path to truth. For readers, it offers charity toward the muddle of human talk. It is a motto for the novel’s compassionate realism.