Quotes by Jane Austen

If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.

I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.

Time will explain.

I was quiet, but I was not blind.

To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect.

There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.

My heart is, and always will be, yours.

One man's style must not be the rule of another's.

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance.

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.

Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.

We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.

At my time of life opinions are tolerably fixed. It is not likely that I should now see or hear any thing to change them.

There was a kind of cold-hearted selfishness on both sides, which mutually attracted them; and they sympathized with each other in an insipid propriety of demeanor, and a general want of understanding.

An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself. Her cares are over, and she feels that may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion. All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done.

I am greatly pleased with your account of Fanny; I found her in the summer just as you describe, almost another sister, I could not have supposed that a niece would ever have been so much to me. She is quite after one's own heart.

Where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.

A woman never looks better than on horseback.

But angry people are not always wise.

If there is any thing disagreeable going on, men are always sure to get out of it.

One cannot have too large a party. A large party secures its own amusement.

Children of the same family; the same blood; with the same first associations and habits; have some means of enjoyment in their power; which no subsequent connections can supply.

We do not look in our great cities for our best moralit.

Friendship is really the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.

I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me that trouble of liking them.

A scheme of which every part promises delight, can never be successful; and general disappointment is only warded off by the defense of some little peculiar vexation.

This indulgence, though not more than Catherine had hoped for, completed her conviction of being favored beyond every other human creature, in friends and fortune, circumstance and chance. Everything seemed to cooperate for her advantage.

I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished women. I rather wonder now at your knowing any.

With such a worshipping wife, it was hardly possible that any natural defects in it should not be increased. The extreme sweetness of her temper must hurt his.

It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.

Whatever bears affinity to cunning is despicable.

It is singularity which often makes the worst part of our suffering, as it always does of our conduct.

I think him every thing that is worthy and amiable.

I am all astonishment.

Run mad as often as you choose but do not faint.

It's a truth universally acknowledged.

Gratitude, not merely for having once loved her, but for loving her still well enough, to forgive all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and all the unjust accusations accompanying her rejection.

The wisest and the best of men, nay, the wisest and best of their actions, may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke.

But to appear happy when I am so miserable -- Oh! who can require it?

Catherine had never wanted comfort more, and Henry looked as if he was aware of it.

But he recommended the books which charmed her leisure hours, he encouraged her taste, and corrected her judgment; he made reading useful by talking to her of what she read, and heightened its attraction by judicious praise.

What harm could there be in returning smile for smile and in allowing the most charming man she had ever met to conquer the few remaining corners of her heart where common sense retained a last fleeting hold?

Give me but a little cheerful company, let me only have the company of the people I love, let me only be where I like and with whom I like, and the devil may take the rest, say I.

Pray, my dear aunt, what is the difference in matrimonial affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive? Where does discretion end, and avarice begin?

But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures. We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?

She denied none of it aloud, and agreed to none of it in private.

Fine dancing, I believe like virtue, must be its own reward. Those who are standing by are usually thinking of something very different.

Emma had no opportunity of speaking to Mr. Knightley till after supper; but, when they were all in the ballroom again, her eyes invited him irresistibly to come to her and be thanked.

Here are officers enough in Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country.

To her own heart it was a delightful affair, to her imagination it was even a ridiculous one, but to her reason, her judgment, it was completely a puzzle.

I come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be...yours.

I should wish to see them very good friends, and would, on no account, authorize in my girls the smallest degree of arrogance towards their relations; but still they cannot be equals.

I am worn out with civility.

You have gained a new source of enjoyment, and it is well to have as many holds upon happiness as possible.

I am certainly the most fortunate creature that ever existed!

Where the wound had been given, there must the cure be found, if any where.

His departure gave Catherine the first experimental conviction that a loss may be sometimes a gain.

Man only can be aware of the insensibility of man towards a new gown.

The past, present, and future, were all equally in gloom.

It sometimes is a disadvantage to be so very guarded. If a woman conceals her affection from the object of it, she may loose the opportunity of fixing him.

You want nothing, but patience or give it a more fascinating name. Call it hope.

I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.

There was a great deal of good sense in all this; but there are some situations of the human mind in which good sense has very little power.

General benevolence, but not general friendship, make a man what he ought to be.

Every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason.

Incline us oh God! to think humbly of ourselves, to be severe only in the examination of our own conduct, to consider our fellow-creatures with kindness, and to judge of all they say and do with that charity which we would desire from them ourselves.

Pride has often been his best friend. It has connected him nearer with virtue than any other feeling.

What did she say? Just what she ought, of course. A lady always does.

Oh! Do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.

She is loveliness itself.

That would be the greatest misfortune of all! -- To find a man agreeable whom one is determined to hate! -- Do not wish me such an evil.

We met Dr. Hall in such deep mourning that either his mother, his wife, or himself must be dead.

No: the years which had destroyed her youth and bloom had only given him a more glowing, manly, open look, in no respect lessening his personal advantages. She had seen the same Frederick Wentworth.

Every body has their taste in noises as well as other matters; and sounds are quite innoxious, or most distressing, by their sort rather than their quantity.

Lady Middleton resigned herself... Contenting herself with merely giving her husband a gentle reprimand on the subject, five or six times every day.

There had been moments when she felt he had almost forgiven her. She would always remember those moments.

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.

I wish I might take this for a compliment; but to be so easily seen through I am afraid is pitiful.

The post office has a great charm at one point of our lives. When you have lived to my age, you will begin to think letters are never worth going through the rain for.

It was absolutely necessary to interrupt him now.

You shall not, for the sake
of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity.

It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.

And you are never to stir out of doors till you can prove that you have spent ten minutes of every day in a rational manner.

With men he can be rational and unaffected, but when he has ladies to please, every feature works.

Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort.

You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity.

You have delighted us long enough.

She knew that when she played she was giving pleasure only to herself; but this was no new sensation.

She was nothing more than a mere good-tempered, civil and obliging Young Woman; as such we could scarcely dislike her -- she was only an Object of Contempt.

Marianne was silent; it was impossible for her to say what she did not feel, however trivial the occasion.

Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manner were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy.

She had spoken it; but she trembled when it was done, conscious that her words were listened to, and daring not even to try to observe their effect.

There is no disputing about taste.

I am no indiscriminate novel reader. The mere trash of the common circulating library I hold in the highest contempt.

The bells rang, and everybody smiled.

I have had to contend against the unkindness of his sister, and the insolence of his mother; and have suffered the punishment of an attachment, without enjoying its advantages.

It was a delightful visit;-perfect, in being much too short.

Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.

To take a dislike to a young man, only because he appeared to be of a different disposition from himself, was unworthy the real liberality of mind.

The worst crimes; are the crimes of the heart.

To yield readily -- easily -- to the persuasion of a friend is no merit.... To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either.

I trust that absolutes have gradations.

I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness.

Undoubtedly ... there is a meanness in all the arts which ladies sometimes condescend to employ for captivation. What bears affinity to cunning is despicable.

Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.

Not very good, I am afraid. But now really, do not you think Udolpho the nicest book in the world? The nicest--by which I suppose you mean the neatest. That must depend upon the binding.

A person who is knowingly bent on bad behavior, gets upset when better behavior is expected of them.

My idea of good company, Mr. Eliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.

But she sat down, resolving within herself to draw no limits in future to the impudence of an impudent man.

Warmth and enthusiasm did captivate her still. She felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped.

It's been many years since I had such an exemplary vegetable.

Indulge your imagination in every possible flight.

I go too long without picking up a good book, I feel like I've done nothing useful with my life.

My good qualities are under your protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible; and, in return, it belongs to me to find occasion for teasing and quarreling with you as often as may be.

A man does not recover from such devotion of the heart to such a woman! He ought not; he does not.

She mediated, by turns, on broken promises and broken arches, phaetons and false hangings, Tilneys and trap-doors.

A few months more, and he, perhaps, may be walking here.

She loved Anne better than she loved her own abilities.

Anne, who had been a most attentive listener to the whole, left the room, to seek the comfort of cool air for her flushed cheeks; and as she walked along a favourite grove, said, with a gentle sigh, A few months more, and he, perhaps, may be walking here.

Half the sum of attraction, on either side, might have been enough, for he had nothing to do, and she had hardly any body to love. (of Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth, Persuasion).

Such a letter was not to be soon recovered from... Every moment rather brought fresh agitation. It was an overpowering happiness.

We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us.

My playing is no more like her's, than a lamp is like sunshine.

I cannot, I cannot,' cried Marianne; 'leave me, leave me, if I distress you; leave me, hate me, forget me! But do not torture me so. Oh! how easy for those who have no sorrow of their own to talk of extertion!

That is a compliment which gives me no pleasure.

I do not know where the error lies. I do not pretend to set people right, but I do see they are often wrong.

He could find no better relief to his feelings than by giving his housekeeper directions that every possible attention might be paid to the sick lady and her sister.

Good company requires only birth, education, and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice. Birth and good manners are essential; but a little learning is by no means a dangerous thing in good company; on the contrary, it will do very well.

Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure his making friends -- whether he may be equally capable of retaining them is less certain.

I am happier than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh. Mr. Darcy sends you all the love in the world, that he can spare from me.

It taught me to hope, as I had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before.

I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other.

Far be it from me, my dear sister, to depreciate such pleasures. They would doubtless be congenial with the generality of female minds. But I confess they would have no charms for me. I should infinitely prefer a book.

I have observed...in the course of my life, that if things are going outwardly one month, they are sure to mend the next.

A very little quiet reflection was enough to satisfy Emma.

That is the case with us all, papa. One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

One part of the world does not understand the pleasures of the other.

But her mind had never been in such perturbation; and it needed a very strong effort to appear attentive and cheerful till the usual hour of separating allowed her the relief of quiet reflection.

I cannot make speeches, Emma:' he soon resumed, and in a tone of such sincere, decided, intelligible tenderness as was tolerably convincing. 'If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.

It is such a happiness when good people get together -- and they always do.

There was no being displeased with such an encourager, for his admiration made him discern a likeness before it was possible.

Fortunately for those who pay their court through such foibles, a fond mother, though, in pursuit of praise for her children, the most rapacious of human beings, is likewise the most credulous; her demands are exorbitant; but she will swallow any thing.

I am rather impatient to know the fate of my best gown.

We do not look in great cities for our best morality.

As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people's happiness were in his guardianship! -- How much of pleasure or pain it was in his power to bestow! -- How much of good or evil must be done by him!

It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.

When I fall in love, it will be forever.

I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men.

I leave it to be settled, by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.

Oh! I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life in reading it.

I have no more to say. If this be the case, he deserves you. I could not have parted with you, my Lizzy, to any one less worthy.

You have everybody dearest to you always at hand; I, probably, never shall again; and therefore, till I have outlived all my affections, a post office, I think, must always have power to draw me out in worse weather than today.

Every body at all addicted to letter writing, without having much to say, which will include a large proportion of the female world at least.

Every body allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female.

Mrs. Allen was one of that numerous class of females, whose society can raise no other emotion than surprise at there being any men in the world who could like them well enough to marry them. She had neither beauty, genius, accomplishment, nor manner.

Her sentiments towards him were compounded of all that was respectful, grateful, confiding, and tender.

You must try not to mind growing up into a pretty woman.

Oh! write, write. Finish it at once. Let there be an end of this suspense. Fix, commit, condemn yourself.

I do not like to have people throw themselves away; but everybody should marry as soon as they can do it to advantage.

I am not born to sit still and do nothing. If I lose the game, it shall not be from not striving for it.

There is not one in a hundred of either sex, who is not taken in when they marry. ... it is, of all transactions, the one in which people expect most from others, and are least honest themselves.

She was feeling, thinking, trembling about everything; agitated, happy, miserable, infinitely obliged, absolutely angry.

Fanny! You are killing me! No man dies of love but on the stage, Mr. Crawford.

I cannot think well of a man who sports with any woman's feelings; and there may often be a great deal more suffered than a stander-by can judge of.

You must really begin to harden yourself to the idea of being worth looking at.

How wonderful, how very wonderful the operations of time, and the changes of the human mind!

Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves.

Everybody likes to go their own way -- to choose their own time and manner of devotion.

Every thing he did was right. Every thing he said was clever. If their evenings at the park included cards, he cheated himself and all the rest of the party to get her a good hand.

Mama, the more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love.

Had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.

That is what I like; that is what a young man ought to be. Whatever be his pursuits, his eagerness in them should know no moderation, and leave him no sense of fatigue.

What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering?

Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate. She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favourite maxims.

For what do we live, but to make sport by subjecting our neighbors to endless discretionary review for minor additions?

It does not appear to me that my hand is unworthy your acceptance, or that the establishment I can offer would be any other than highly desirable.

Trusting that you will some time or other do me greater justice than you can do now.

The most incomprehensible thing in the world to a man, is a woman who rejects his offer of marriage!

Mr. Knightley, if I have not spoken, it is because I am afraid I will awaken myself from this dream.

Better be without sense than misapply it as you do.

A man always imagines a woman to be ready for anybody who asks her.

Marry me. Marry me, my wonderful, darling friend.

Men of sense, whatever you may choose to say, do not want silly wives.

Yes, you know enough of my frankness to believe me capable of that. After abusing you so abominably to your face, I could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relations.

There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time.

I will not say that your mulberry trees are dead; but I am afraid they're not alive.

I mean to be too rich to lament or to feel anything of the sort. A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. It certainly may secure all the myrtle and turkey part of it.

It is a lovely night, and they are much to be pitied who have not been taught to feel in some degree as you do-who have not at least been given a taste for nature in early life. They lose a great deal.

A novel must show how the world truly is. Somehow, reveals the true source of our actions.

One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best.

Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well−informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid.

Portable property is happiness in a pocketbook.

If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.

Of this she was perfectly unaware; to her he was only the man who had made himself agreeable nowhere, and who had not thought her handsome enough to dance with.

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

She hardly knew how to suppose that she could be an object of admiration to so great a man.

How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue.

It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does. And men take care that they should.

The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it.