Meaning of “Reason always means what someone else has got…”

Emma, Volume II, Chapter VIII, scan-backed 1816 John Murray first edition on Wikisource. After Frank Churchill returns from an impulsive haircut, Emma “moralised to herself” that silly things can cease to seem silly when sensible people do them impudently. This is Emma Woodhouse’s ironic private judgment inside the novel, not Austen endorsing impudence as a general rule.

The Rape of the Lock, Canto III, line 16 in the 1714 second edition. ‘At ev’ry Word a Reputation dies’ is already present in that edition and remains dated 1714; the line occurs in a satirical description of fashionable social talk rather than as literal reportage.

“The Open Window,” collected in Beasts and Super-Beasts, Project Gutenberg #269. The line follows Vera’s invented explanation for Framton Nuttel’s terrified departure; it is comic fictional narration about a deceptive storyteller.

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter XI, Project Gutenberg #1342. Fitzwilliam Darcy says this to Elizabeth Bennet during their discussion of faults; Elizabeth immediately identifies the position as implacable resentment, so the novel itself does not leave the maxim unchallenged.

An Essay on Criticism, in the section describing the moral duties of a critic.

Poor Richard’s Almanack; one of Franklin’s compact maxims about secrecy and human behavior.